Why, every election, does there have to be one of these jackasses? Weren’t there some Democrats pulling this nonsense last election?
South Charleston Mayor Richie Robb said today he may vote against George W. Bush in the Electoral College, even if the president carries West Virginia’s popular vote.
Robb, long known as a maverick Republican, said he is considering using his position as one of the state’s five Republican electors to protest what he believes are misguided policies of the current administration.
“It’s not likely that I would vote for Kerry,” Robb said. “But I’m looking at what my options are when it comes time to cast my vote.”
Look at big, important, me. I have weighty issues to think about. Look at all the press attention.
Listen, you stupid bastard- your little moral qualms are not more important than the hundreds of thousands of voters your electoral vote represents. Verstehen?
You want to make a big scene and get some attention to protest the President? Go set yourself on fire on the Capitol steps in Charleston. I will send you some matches and two bucks for gas.
MommaBear
Send him to Washington, D.C. for that bonfire…why dirty up a perfectly good local building!
Neo
The phrase “maverick Republican” is a big-media code phrase for a RINO (Republican in Name Only).
John McCain is another well-known “maverick” and big-time RINO.
And technically the electoral college can vote for anyone they want.
Lynxx Pherrett
Bound electors as of the 2000 Presidential Election; some individual state laws may have changed since then. At the time, West Virginia was one of 24 states that did not bind electors. The electors in the other 26 states and DC were bound by state law and/or party pledges to vote in accordance with the state’s (or district’s*) popular vote.
* “In Maine and Nebraska, two electors are chosen at-large by state-wide popular vote and the rest are selected by the popular vote in each congressional district. As a result, the electoral procedure in these States permits a split slate of electors to be chosen.“
Justin O.
Right fuckin’ on John! That’s what I’m talking about!
Glen England
Virginia Elector Roger McBride cast his vote for the Libertarian Party candidate in 1972 as a protest. (McBride became the LP candidate in 1976.) It’s odd but true: the electors are not bound by law to vote according to the popular vote. It’s the system we inherited, John. If you don’t like it, work to get it fixed. Calling people “stupid bastard” does less than nothing.
Moreover, if Republican Robb is considering such an act, isn’t that an indication that the GOP is on the verge of blowing itself apart? Frankly, I’ve long wondered what fiscally conservative/ socially liberal Republicans like Chafee, Collins, Snow — and even, to some degree, McCain and Powell — have in common with Bush, Cheney, DeLay, et al. Christ, if Goldwater were still alive, he’d excommunicate them all.
Finally, I’m disturbed by your withering contempt for “little moral qualms.” “Just following orders” has never saved a life or righted a wrong. (In that sense, EVERYONE is important; cf., that prison in Iraq.) The German touch was very nice.
Yes, I get mad, too, and I make intemperate remarks. But I’m starting to wonder about the frequency and intensity: what happened to you?
CadillaqJaq
Does a single Republican elector’s threat to change his mind reflect “an indication that the GOP is on the verge of blowing itself apart” any more than Senator Jeffords decision following the 2000 election to throw in his lot with the Dems by declaring himself an “Independent?”
Piffle: dream on.