Looksl ike Gregoire can rest easy now:
A judge in this conservative area of Eastern Washington on Monday rejected claims by Republicans that fraud and illegal votes wrongly put a Democrat, Christine Gregoire, in the governor’s office, and in response the Republican candidate, Dino Rossi, said he would end his five-month legal effort to remove her.
Mr. Rossi’s decision came as a surprise because his lawyers had long said they would appeal to the state’s Supreme Court if they lost. A spokeswoman for Mr. Rossi attributed his decision to the forcefulness of the ruling, issued by Judge John E. Bridges of Chelan Country Superior Court.
An appeal “just wasn’t going to be possible, and it was time to end it,” said the spokeswoman, Mary Lane.
You have to just love the write-up: “judge in this conservative area of Eastern Washington.” As opposed to the liberal area everywhere else?
Stormy70
He did the right thing in ending his appeal. Now he can run for the Senate with the existing good will of the people for not dragging it out. Smart political move.
Steven
Actually, the “conservative area of Eastern Washington” line is a redundancy. There are no liberal areas in Eastern Washington. The Rs picked this county to bring the case because they knew they’d get a Republican judge. Unfortunately for them, he was one of those non-judicial activist Republican judges. They had no case and he told them so.
John Cole
Steven- If that is what was going on, that is what they shoulkd have said.
Maybe some of the residents of Eastern Washington are, but not Eastern Washington itself. It was just a really stupid way of writing it up.
dan
Washington is quite a bit like Oregon (I’m a former resident of both states). Most of the western/urban areas are indeed liberal, but you can’t get any more conservative (in the old school, libertarian sense) then the eastern parts of those states.
Kimmitt
There are a couple of little liberal pockets in places like college towns, and I think the idea was the conservative area of Eastern Washington vs. the liberal area of coastal Washington.
DecidedFenceSitter
Dan and Kim he’s being pedantic. He’s referring to the referral of the actual land being conservative or liberal, versus the residents of that land.
demimondian
Considering how empty eastern Washington is (you can literally drive from Pullman to the Cascades on two lane roads and never see a traffic light), there’s some question about whether there are any residents of the state who live east of the mountains.
Losing Faith
“He did the right thing in ending his appeal. Now he can run for the Senate with the existing good will of the people for not dragging it out.”
Hmmmm, but don’t you think people will point out that they were telling Gregoire to concede, before the recounts, because if the roles were reversed, he would have? Obviously that changed the minute it was returned that Gregoire took the final recount by 129 votes (133 now). How is that credible and showing good will to not drag it out? Actually…thinking about it now, I’m not sure it was him directly saying that. It may have been that redfaced little screamer Chris Vance.
Stormy70
I think people in that state realize who actually won the race, and will reward him later for taking the high road, if he runs for the Senate. We’ll see.
Wrye
Yeah, that worked pretty well for Gore, after all, that whole “actually won” thing.
Nash
Blog comment most likely to induce laugh-followed, coffee-drenched monitor of the day:
Yeah, that worked pretty well for Gore, after all, that whole “actually won” thing.
demimondian
“I think people in that state realize who actually won the race, and will reward him later for taking the high road, if he runs for the Senate. We’ll see.”
The actual winner of the 2004 Gubernatorial race in Washington won’t be running for Senate in 2006. Dino Rossi will be running against Maria Cantwell, and Cantwell will win in a landslide. The actual winner will still be governor, just as she is today.
jack
And another nail is hammered into the coffin of this great republic…
They got away with it.
Once again, a Republican caves ‘for the good of..’ blah blah blah. Do you think the Democrats care? The documented vote fraud in Washington was astounding. Ballots being ‘suddenly discovered’, and judges letting them stand. It was repulsive.
And they got away with it. Same day registration of…whoever wants to vote…ID? Proof of residency–why that would be voter intimidation! They got away with it. AND they can filibuster judges at whim….
They can’t win elections very well anymore, but with the help of complicit election boards, judges and Republicans who still seem to think that playing fair with leftists will get them somewhere, they should have that red flag flying over America before Commisar Hillary is too old to implement the one party state….
Rick
Jack,
Chill. We survived presidents like LBJ and Nixon, we’ll survive this. After all, “blue” America is dwindling, abortion being a holy rite and all in those precincts.
Cordially…
SeesThroughIt
I find it quite funny that Jack the right-winger is paranoid about Democrats forming a one-party state.
Also, I believe the phrase “shut up, you lost, get over it, move on” applies here, hmmm?
Rick
I would point out, further, that there are Democratic one-party states. At least, I live in such a “state” (DC).
Sure, it’s slothful and corrupt and retrograde (you know, like they never did an honest day’s work in their lives), but life goes on.
Cordially…
timekeeper
The number of illegally cast ballots in Washington was 13 times the margin of victory.
To put that into perspective: Bush won Ohio by 119,000 votes. The number of illegally cast ballots would have had to be 1.547 million illegally cast ballots to come up with the same proportion as here in Washington. Additionally, more than half of the illegal ballots came from King County, which Gregoire won with about 61% of the vote. Imagine coming up with 800,000 illegal ballots in the smaller counties in Ohio which Bush won by similar margins. It’s mathematically improbable.
jack
Chill? I will not.
I first started reading Balloon Juice during the Torricelli mess–when Democrats found a judge wo agreed with them that a field of about seven candidates offered voters no choice because the Democrats couldn’t legally put up a candidate who stood a snowball’s chance in hell(Torricelli could have ran, but the writing was on the wall and the Dems–and their cohorts in the courts–didn’t want to lose another Dem seat in the Senate.
We chilled then. We chill all the damned time. We smirk about the repeatedly confirmed fact that when you die, you become a Democrat in many major metropolitan areas. Why the hell is this funny? Democrats cheat so often, so regularly and so blatantly that no one thinks twice about it. In Florida, right before the 2000 fiasco, the sitting Democrat mayor of Miami was removed because the vote fraud was so damned blatant. Are you allowed to hold office in Chicago if you’re not a Daley? In 2004 Democrat activists were caught slashing tires of get-out-the-vote vans. Caught. And not a damned thing was done about it. The 100k+ win for Bush in Ohio is questioned as ‘suspiciously close’–but no one checks the much tighter margins in Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Wisconsin–even though massive vote fraud has been uncovered tere as well.
And we should chill?
If we chill any more we’re headed for the day when the ballot lists the approved candidates and is already filled out, for your conveinience,
Rick
Jack,
Well, one thought should chill ourBlue State justice-seeking keyboard commandantes: it figures that we knuckle draggers are better armed. Considering the length of limbs it takes to drag knuckles, it’s obvious.
The result in WA was disappointing, a feeling not softened because it was to be expected. The Stupid Party is always the sap in these procedural face-offs with the Evil Party.
But we have a majority that has bright prospects for growing (not governing in the Senate, sad to say, but our farm system is stronger), and as Hugh Hewitt notes, if you win big enough, they can’t steal it.
The bogus/illegal votes were cast election day. Rossi just didn’t roll up a big enough margin in legitimate voting to overcome it.
So take consolation, like the wingnutters on the Left, in addressing Gringoire as Governor Select. To be redefeated. Etc.
Cordially…
Kimmitt
Are you allowed to hold office in Chicago if you’re not a Daley?
Is this a serious question? Daley the younger only got the job because his tremendously successful predecessor, Harold Washington, died an untimely death. I mean, yeah, there are dynasties everywhere — look at the current President, for example — but this doesn’t really make sense.
In 2004 Democrat activists were caught slashing tires of get-out-the-vote vans. Caught. And not a damned thing was done about it.
Aren’t those guys in the process of being tried and convicted? Isn’t everyone pretty much okay with that?
If we chill any more we’re headed for the day when the ballot lists the approved candidates and is already filled out, for your conveinience,
Man, it must be rough, the way voter fraud has kept the Republicans from taking the House, the Senate, or the Presidency.
Gary Farber
“… As opposed to the liberal area everywhere else?”
As opposed to the liberal area of Western Washington, of course. This is a commonplace, nothing more.