An L.A. Times editorial today calls John McCain "malicious" for comments he made about ACORN's ongoing voter registration fraud.
John McCain committed a malicious misrepresentation in the last presidential debate when he claimed that ACORN, the liberal activist group, "is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy."
As ACORN acknowledges, it has collected voter registration forms with bogus signatures. But even when they aren't winnowed out by election officials, transparently invalid registrations don't lead to fraudulent voting. Even the most lax poll worker wouldn't allow "Mickey Mouse" or "John Q. Public" to cast a ballot.
There's a case to be made for cracking down on errors and, yes, fraud in election procedures, and the FBI reportedly is conducting a preliminary investigation of whether ACORN, the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now, encouraged its canvassers to falsify signatures. But wild claims like McCain's undermine reform efforts and make it harder to hold ACORN accountable for its real faults, including providing a financial incentive for canvassers to fake signatures.
The Times thinks this debate about election fraud is is a very complicated. While dismissing voter fraud as virtually impossible -- this is on the strength of its dubious prediction that Mickey Mouse would be prevented from voting if he turned up at the polls -- the Times laments Democrats' too easy dismissal of the possibility of fraud. Listen to this beauty of a sugggestive sentence that pretty much says nothing while reaffirming a supposed evil in Republicans.
Republicans claim to be concerned about widespread fraud, but aren't bothered if their alarms discourage Democratic-leaning blocs from voting.
What the Times doesn't bother to explain is how Republican concerns about fraud will persuade anybody to stay home on election day, be they minority voters or anybody else. But voter discouragement is the ulterior motive that the Times devines in this "complicated" debate. Naturally, at the Times it's a given that Republicans only "claim to be concerned" about fraud.
So the L.A. Times comes out with a lukewarm acknowledgment that voter registration fraud is, well, maybe not such a good thing. And yes, we really ought to try to prevent it. But, in this soon-to-be-most-perfect-of-all-worlds (assuming as the L.A. Times does that Obama will win the election), actual voting fraud simply can't happen. Voter registration fraud can run rampant. Who cares? The real crime, actual voting fraud, is an impossibility -- according to the editors at the L.A. Times. And according to editors at the L.A. Times, John McCain reveals his malice by disagreeing with them on this point. But then, editors at the L.A. Times think this is a very complicated debate.
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