Jim Jeffords, senator from Vermont, has announced he will not be seeking re-election in 2006. According to Jeffords the decision is due to health issues for his wife and himself. Another likely possibility is that he might have realized that his name on the ballot in Vermont might have served as a nice rallying cry for Republicans not only in Vermont but nationally, in the effort to further increase their senate majority. It also adds to my suspicion that he knew he would not be running again, and that fact enabled his post-election betrayal of the party that helped re-elect him.
Via Michelle Malkin, the Washington Gubernatorial election fraud watch continues. Somehow over 900 ineligible felons managed to vote, over 700 of them in King County. Byron York writes that Hillary Clinton would like to make this problem even worse, and a national one at that. In examining the Bill she filed, the "Count Every Vote Act of 2005," York notes
One section says, “Each state shall permit an individual on the day of a Federal election to register to vote in such election at the polling place ... [and] to cast a vote in such election and have that vote counted in the same manner as a vote cast by an eligible voter who properly registered during the regular registration period.”
Another provision says, “Each state and jurisdiction shall accept and process a voter registration application for an election for Federal office unless there is a material omission or information that specifically affects the eligibility of the voter. There shall be a presumption that persons who submit voter registration applications should be registered."
And a third section adds, “The following shall not constitute a ‘material omission or information that specifically affects the eligibility of the voter’: (1) The failure to provide a Social Security number or driver’s license number. (2) The failure to provide information concerning citizenship or age in a manner other than” a simple statement that one is a citizen.
Senator Clinton is prescribing bad medicine for an already ill system. Her solution is to make fraudulent voting by felons, illegals and other non-citizens easier? Surely she must be joking. (No, she's not joking. And don't call her Shirley.) Actually, I do have some suggestions that might actually improve matters.
Finally, how weak is the Republican Senate leadership that they can't move John Bolton safely through the confirmation process when really all the opposition has come up with against him is rumor and innuendo? They managed to let George Voinovich (R-OH) gum up the works at the last minute. This now opens the door for fellow weakling Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) to buckle.
Michelle Malkin has a rundown.
More at RedState.org, where they feel this exposes the weakness so openly that it will have to be corrected.
Power Line prints an email from Rich Lowry, whose second point is that Voinovich's reason for holding back the nominee is "I haven't been to the hearings and haven't heard all these allegations until now." Oh, come on Senator. This is your job, man! Even if you couldn't get there, you do read, don't you?
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