What happens if Republicans retain control of the Senate? Here’s a sample of what’s in store (emphasis added):
Across the aisle, [Sen. Bob] Bennett [R-UT] is confident Republicans will hang on to control of the Senate, just barely, and could see the body being split evenly down the middle, with Vice President Dick Cheney tipping the balance ever-so-slightly to the Republicans.
If he’s right, Bennett will have the ear of the presumptive Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell.
There is no one in the Senate whom Bennett is closer to than the Kentucky Republican. For nearly two years, the two senators have had a deal in place where Bennett would become counsel to the majority leader, a hand-picked adviser, putting him in the inner circle of Senate leadership and in the room for every deal cut and horse trade that gets done.
And McConnell has already given Bennett the green light to use his chairmanship of the Joint Economic Committee to take another swing at one of Bennett’s pet projects: overhauling Social Security.
Once a cornerstone of President Bush’s agenda, it was quickly torn to shreds by Democrats and seniors groups.
Bennett proposed raising the retirement age and indexing payments based on need. He also pitched a separate plan to create private retirement accounts. Neither plan went far, but they are still tucked away in his desk drawer, and he is prepared to dust them off.
Just another reminder of what’s at stake Tuesday.
(Thanks to TPM Reader JL for the tip.)
Okay, there’s a lot going on today. And given that so much of this election is driven by opposition to the Iraq war, it seems hard to see how it could change too many minds. But let’s take just a few moments to marvel at the titanic cynicism of this White House for scheduling the sentencing of Saddam Hussein two days before election day. It is one last reminder of this president’s quest to turn this country into a banana republic. And really one of the best reasons to send them all packing.
More GOP dirty phone tricks in New Hampshire, scene of the 2002 phone-jamming incident that led to criminal prosecutions of Republican operatives:
For the second straight day yesterday, Democratic field offices received dozens of phone calls and e-mails from frustrated voters upset about repeated automated phone calls they thought were coming from Democratic candidate Paul Hodes – though the calls were paid for by a Republican group instead.
The National Republican Congressional Committee spent nearly $20,000 on the calls last week. Depending on the rate, that could mean more than 300,000 automated phone calls into the Second Congressional District.
Incumbent Republican Congressman Charlie Bass denounced the calls yesterday and said he tried to get the NRCC to put a stop to them. But a spokesman for the NRCC said the automated phone calls would continue indefinitely.
“The calls will continue as planned,” said Alex Burgos, a spokesman for the NRCC, the national group charged with electing Republicans to the House. “They are done independently of Charlie Bass’s campaign. He has nothing to do with them.”
The only surprising thing here is that the NRCC has essentially admitted this is one of its tricks. We have a report that a similar effort is underway in the New York 19th Congressional District, where Democrat John Hall is trying to unseat Republican Sue Kelly.
Reports of GOP voter supression efforts are coming in from all around the country, in local, state, and federal races. Here are a few samples:
In North Carolina:
On Monday morning, when Chapel Hill lawyer Bob Epting approached the early voting center at Morehead Planetarium, he . . . was approached by a female college student who asked whether he was a registered Democrat.
“Yes I am,” he said.
She replied, “Good, here’s a list of our judicial candidates.”
Epting thanked her, folded the piece of paper without looking at it and put it in his pocket. . . .
But after exiting the poll, he remembered the piece of paper and removed it from his pocket. Standing at the top of a dozen or so marble steps, he scanned the list in disbelief. It was a list of Republican candidates.
In California:
Senator Dianne Feinstein sounded off today over a mailer that prominently displays her picture. It’s billed as a voter information guide for Democrats, despite the fact that it recommends voting no on some issues that Feinstein and the Democratic Party support, including Proposition 86, the tobacco tax, and Proposition 87, the oil tax.
We’ll keep posting as we hear about them.
Voting machine snafus have been reported during early voting in Florida’s 13th Congressional District, where Republican Vern Buchanan and Democrat Christine Jennings are vying for Katherine Harris’ open seat:
The voters who complained say they picked Jennings, but the 13th Congressional District had no vote registered for either Jennings or Republican Vern Buchanan when a screen reviewing their votes came up.
The voters all said the touchscreen machines allowed them to go back to the 13th District race and make a selection, and their vote was recorded properly in the end.
Similar problems cropped up in South Florida during early voting:
Broward Supervisor of Elections spokeswoman Mary Cooney said it’s not uncommon for screens on heavily used machines to slip out of sync, making votes register incorrectly. Poll workers are trained to recalibrate them on the spot — essentially, to realign the video screen with the electronics inside. The 15-step process is outlined in the poll-workers manual.
Can you imagine an ATM “slipping out of sync” after heavy usage? Billions of dollars worth of commercial transactions are successfully completed every day in this country by consumers involving far more complicated software and far more possible choices than an electronic voting ballot. There is simply no excuse for this kind of thing, and anyone who suggests it’s just par for the course was either sold a bill of goods or is selling one.
The news out of New Hampshire about harassing NRCC robo-calls disguised to sound like calls from the Democratic candidate should focus everyone’s attention.
The prestige DC pundits have never particularly cared. No surprise since they’re part of the same corruption. But the national Republican party worked the 2002 New Hampshire election with criminal conduct and then continued to pay the indicted crooks legal bills to keep them quiet.
Ken Mehlman and others have been at the center of this going back six years. And they want to try to pull this one out with criminal conduct too. If they don’t succeed, it all needs to be investigated. A real investigation of what happened in 2002. A real investigation of the hush money Mehlman and his predecessors paid to the perpetrators over the last four years. A real investigation of the election fraud from 2004. And a real investigation of what’s taking place now as we speak.
The integrity of our political system is on the line.
Ted Haggard confesses to “sexual immorality“, saying he has had a “lifelong sexual problem.”
I fear that’s his way of saying he’s gay, something for which he probably will seek a “cure.” Hard not to feel sorry for the guy.
More on what we’re hearing about GOP dirty phone tricks in the New York 19th Congressional District.
Three TPM readers have reported a phone scam with a double whammy. The call purports to be for John Hall, the Democratic challenger, but makes negative assertions about Hall. If the caller hangs up, they are called again and again, as many as seven times, according to one report.
So either the recipient hears a negative message about Hall, or they think Hall is harrassing them with repeated phone calls. Either way it’s a win for Hall’s opponent, Republican incumbent Sue Kelly.
If you’re in the NY-19, let us know what you’re hearing.
We’re getting reports from a number of congressional districts that one or another of the GOP committees is sponsoring robocalls that begin with “I’m calling with information about [fill in name of Democratic candidate].” Apparently, many voters, irate with the flood of calls, assume that the Democrat is the one sponsoring the call.
In addition to the New Hampshire 2nd and New York 19th, which we covered below, TPM readers report such calls in the Illinos 6th (Roskam v. Duckworth), Illinois 8th (McSweeney v. Bean), and California 4th (Doolittle v. Brown). However, we do not have reports from those district of repeated callbacks after the recipient hangs up, as has been reported in the New York 19th.