George Allen wants to win that bad

November 7, 2006

I realize a certain sense of desperation has no doubt taken hold in Sen. George Allen’s (R-Va.) campaign, but when people start receiving phone calls at home alleging from people alleging to be state elections officials, threatening criminal charges if someone tries to vote, you know Republicans’ efforts to poison the political process has gotten entirely out of hand.

Keep in mind, we’re not just talking about some allegations from the Webb campaign — documented instances of Republicans voter intimidation have prompted an FBI investigation.

The FBI is looking into possible voter intimidation in Virginia’s hard-fought U.S. Senate contest between Republican incumbent George Allen and Democrat Jim Webb.

Just ahead of today’s election, state officials alerted the U.S. Justice Department to several complaints of suspicious phone calls to voters about where they cast ballots and their preferences for the Senate.

Jean R. Jensen, secretary of the Virginia Board of Elections, said, “Voters should not be intimidated or deceived by phone messages purporting to be from election officials. Any communication from federal, state or local election officials will always be in a written form clearly identifying the official source.”

The cowards, in other words, are still afraid of a fair fight.

ThinkProgress has a copy of an MSNBC report on the investigation.

O’DONNELL: We begin this hour in Virginia where the hotly contested Senate race between Sen. George Allen and Democratic challenger Jim Webb now has a new wrinkle. The FBI is reportedly looking into possible voter intimidation in that state. Hardball’s David Shuster is in Richmond has the very latest. David, what can you tell us about this FBI investigation? What are the Democrats alleging that the Republicans are doing?

SHUSTER: Well, let’s start with the Secretary of State as far as the Board of Elections is concerned. Jean Jensen who runs the board of elections confirms that the FBI is now investigating allegations of voter intimidation and voter suppression. State officials yesterday, after getting information initially from Democrats, said that they were able to document dozens of phone calls that were made to heavily Democratic precincts in which the people who were receiving the calls were either given incorrect information about polling sites, misdirected about election laws. And so the FBI has now interviewed state officials and state officials say the investigation continues. The Democrats, particularly the Webb campaign, they have issued a written statement saying that Republicans are behind an orchestrated effort to suppress and intimidate Democratic voters. Republicans say they don’t know anything about the investigation. A Republican official says that the GOP and the Allen campaign are focused on mobilizing voters and have not discouraged anyone from going to the polls. But as if investigation continues, slors, this is just the latest chapter in what has been a very, very nasty senate campaign here in Virginia.

Nasty is one thing, but the GOP wants to cheat. We’re not talking about hardball vs softball; we’re talking about one side paying off the refs.

And if Allen wins, they’ll just keep pulling these stunts, every year. It’s as simple as that.

Republican: syn. liar, cheat, thief, batterer, rapist, child abuser, pediphile, murderer, war criminal. The list goes on.

There is absolutely Not One Thing that is good about these people. Not. One. Thing.

  • One thought has been going through my head as we discuss the lengths to which Rove and the GOP will go to hold power. They think that Democrats and liberals are wimps who will repeatedly allow themselves to be defrauded and that once the cycle begins it is self-sustaining. I am thinking that one more fraud ridden election, one more court appointed president, one more Balckwell or Harris, and there may well be at least one Democrat who is not willing to take it anymore.

    To be clear (here me Oh FBI Agent monitoring the CB Report) I in no way advocate violence, but there are people who do extreme things in extreme situations and they are no all weraring elephant lapel pins.

    Where is the line between peacful disagreement and lawfulness and riots and assassination?

  • More than anyone, this man must be defeated. To elect him, would revive the hope of his running again in 08, and if we as a people are idiotic enough to make him Senator, Im sure the country could find a way to make hiim President, and that is about the most dangerous thing I can imagine happening to this country, after the eight years of disaster we will have just gone through.

    So, it makes perfect sense that the dirtiest of tricks would come from the dirtiest of candidates. That a racist, undemocratic, thug, basically is running neck and neck with a solid candidate shows you just how far we still have to go in this country. It also shows just how tenuous this result is, and why its so important that we all stay on top of the concerted effort on multiple fronts to retain power through a corruption of the electoral process. Ive never been so concerned for the fate of this country as I am today. I fear I will be wretching tonight at some of the outcomes, knowing in my gut that they were not obtained honestly.

    Is this where Democracy should be, after all this time? Heading backwards…????

  • I think when those old Southern rascist Democrats moved over to the Republicans they brought all their dirty voter suppression techniques with them. They’ll be burning crescents on lawns next.

  • Republicans are un-Democratic.

    In some ways Macacawitz is symbolic of the new Republican, a well-heeled California boy who wants to be a good old boy with blow-dried hair. If I chawed I know which direction I would spit in.

  • “What are the Democrats alleging that the Republicans are doing?”

    I can just feel the condescension oozing from her words. The liberal MSM at work.

  • Jean R. Jensen, secretary of the Virginia Board of Elections, said, “Voters should not be intimidated or deceived by phone messages purporting to be from election officials. Any communication from federal, state or local election officials will always be in a written form clearly identifying the official source.”

    Shhh! Now they know how to intimidate and look official next time…

  • There is absolutely Not One Thing that is good about these people. Not. One. Thing.

    Now that’s not entirely true. Were it not for the example set by George Felix Allen Jr., and his cohorts very few people would see the GOP has become a fetid swamp of amorality, venality and hypocrisy. Reading about these bastards is like reading a gross, hackneyed caricature of sleazy politicians. Except that’s it’s true. You can’t make this stuff up. They are a perfect example of what’s wrong with the country.

    And like MNProgressive, I think if the thieving shits get away with it this time, things will get even uglier. I really hope that’s not the case.

  • If this is a true report, Mr. Allen and anyone else who went along with this sceme belongs in jail. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am getting tired of this stuff. Steal elections and a few underlings get a few months in jail at best, or perhaps a fine or a reprimand. The buck has to stop with the guy running for office or we will never get justice.

  • Translation: heavily Democratic precincts = Places where there are more brown folks than Allen is comfortable with. I’d love to see that pig’s head on a stick. But I guess we should feel grateful he didn’t go with his original plan:

    1. Assemble a lot of crosses made out of dry pine.
    2. Soak crosses with kerosene.
    3. Don fancy sheets.
    4. Place crosses in the yards of homes with Webb signs out front…

  • This is not going to change until doing things like this can get you hard time, in a real prison.

    We need a second Voting Rights Act.

  • The cowards, in other words, are still afraid of a fair fight.

    Exactly. Very well put, CB. They tried making impossible promises, and the promises didn’t come true. They tried lying, but people saw through the lies. And now, they have nothing left, so they’re cheating.

    I hope for the next six months – yes, the election is over, but the post mortems and the window for serious electoral reform have just begun – Democrats hammer this home. Say it again and again, wherever and whenever we can. The cowards are afraid of a fair fight. The only way to beat these assholes is to question their manhood, then they fold like paper.

  • Some commentor somewhere (I’ve been reading a lot of sites today, so not sure where) put it best:

    For a party that seems to want to spread freedom and democracy all over the world, they seem to have a big problem with it here at home.

  • As someone already said of these Bush-head Republifucks, “they’re gutless cowards afraid of a fair fight.”

    Sounds about right to me. We can also expect to hear some paragon of reichwing virtue on pantywaist squawk radio, someone like that douchebag Jay Severin, talk about the cool ways the wingnuts are suppressing the vote.

    The reason rightwing creeps have no scruples is because they have no conscience of their own. They think ethics and morality come from somewhere up in the sky and have to be dispensed to the masses by some fuckwit in a dress delivering a sermon.

  • Someday—really, really, soon—these bullies are going to be found. They’ll be found cowering in corners, hiding in attics, and hunkered down in little holes-in-the-ground. They’ll beg our forgiveness.

    Shall we give it to them?

    I think not.

    And I’d not for a moment consider sending them to Gitmo. It’s warm and tropical there.

    So—suppose we commit “Felix” and his ideological siblings to a somewhat cooler climate? I understand that we have a lot of “rather inhospitable” islands in the North Pacific.

    The Aleutians….

  • I guess it’s better to ask forgiveness for cheating your way into political office than to ask the voters for permission to be there.

    This from the same folks who think we should be spreading democracy across the Mideast. What kind of democracy do we even have here?

  • Very nice Steve. But what about one of those islands that will soon be underwater due to global warming? Or we could stake them out in the middle of the Atlantic on something large and buoyant. I’m thinking Dick, Karl, Dennys and Flush strapped together to form a raft would just about do the trick.

    God damnit Erlich stop pushing!
    Shut up Allen and take off those boots, you’ll puncture Rove.

    • Comments are closed.