Anti-Climacus

WELL: some of you may have followed the whole 'gay-bashing' ad run by Max Baucus scandal (for my part, I saw the add, and I think they were making fun of him for atrocious fashion sense and a silly career) would be interested to hear that the Republicans are doing their best to even the score:

" THE "VOTER FRAUD" FRAUD. Republican John Thune, South Dakota attorney general Mark Barnett, and a few well-placed friends at one Sioux Falls television station have been working hard to gin up stories about a supposedly massive voter fraud operation tied to Democratic Senator Tim Johnson. For the most part, they've been getting away with it. But now David Rooks, the estimable Rapid City Journal columnist, has taken a look , and he smells something fishy -- on Thune's part, that is. (Pardon the mixed metaphor). He rightly notes how pro-Thune reporters and officials have used vague allegations and when-did-you-stop-beating-your-wife formulations to make it sound like something is really afoot:

Best I can tell, an Oct. 11 Rapid City Journal Web page headline fired the first shot: "Massive voter fraud investigation under way in state." Hmm, massive? Was this just the overheated phrase of an overworked headline writer that slipped by the sober gaze of a distracted but ordinarily wiser editor, I wondered?

I read on. Apparently not. Right up front we learned the FBI has been hot on the case for two whole weeks. Up front as well we're told state Attorney General Mark Barnett was "in conversation with (the U.S. attorney) on a daily basis." A little further into the story, however, we read: "The investigation currently focuses on a single person (italics mine) who is from South Dakota." But Barnett cautioned, "It could expand."

Wait a minute: A single person? Massive voter fraud? Give me a break. There's something massive here, alright. But wait -- oh yeah -- "it could expand." Cue eerie violin soundtrack, fix close up on face of Mark Barnett: "A single person -- but it could expand." Nefarious laughter, fade to black.

This is a classic. Kudos to Rooks for taking on his own publication. Let's hope some of the national outlets that have picked up this story take a hard look at what's really going on here."