Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler: liar or loon?by KenWe know that the Right has excellent skills in picking its rhetorical battles: the kinds of things that will inflame public sentiment regardless of the truth of them, which usually ranges from "not much" to "undetectable." And one especially clever example has been "voter fraud."It sounds like an issue that strikes at the heart of democracy: all those (yuck!) "other" peoples racking up fraudulent voter registrations and . . . and . . . .Of course here already the thing breaks down, because even in the occasional cases where it has been possible to document bogus registrations, there hasn't been any indication I'm aware of of actual fraudulent votes cast. And since the argument was designed to begin with to enrage people of very low information profiles, it's a distinction that, without prompting, they were most unlikely to make.And never mind that over these last couple of decades polluting the voting machines has been a subject of extremely high priority for Republicans, by and large the very same people who have built the drumbeat of outrage over nonexistent "voter fraud." The crucial thing to remember is that the Right now has won itself permission to engage in any and every lie it can get away with -- there is no longer any "truth standard" on that side of the spectrum; instead it's all about gullibililty.This week we had the latest story from one of the Right's indefatigable crusaders against nonexistent voter fraud, Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler, a gentleman who has been producing "lists" at a pace not seen since the late Sen. Joe McCarthy was tendering his famous lists of Communists in government and other sensitive places. And they always turn out to be bogus. The only question, really, is whether the schmuck is creating out-and-out intentional deceptions or is simply so stupid that he believes his own lies.
Gessler’s Latest “Illegal Voters” Evaporate On Examinationby: Colorado Pols, Thu August 15, 2013 at 10:43 AM MDTAs the Boulder Daily Camera's Erica Meltzer reports:Last month, Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler gave Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett a list of 17 names, all suspected of voting in the November election despite being non-citizens.Those names were among 155 people identified statewide as possible illegal voters.But an investigation by Garnett's office found that all 17 people were citizens and were able to easily verify their status, the district attorney said Wednesday…"Local governments and county clerks do a really good job regulating the integrity of elections, and I'll stand by that record any day of the week," Garnett said. "We don't need state officials sending us on wild goose chases for political reasons." [Pols emphasis]Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler's years-long quest for "illegal voters" on the Colorado rolls has consistently ended in embarrassing failure, ever since his first dire warnings of ten thousand or more "illegal voters" in 2011. Verification that all 17 voters turned over to the Boulder County DA are in fact legal citizens is just the latest example of the absolutely pitiful return on Gessler's large investment of time and resources on this non-problem.Meanwhile, other problems his office is directly responsible, like the failure of the state's mobile voter registration website to record hundreds of registrations, are brushed off as "inevitable glitches." The right-wing media and friendly organizations like True the Vote who sing Gessler's praises for the big scary numbers he throws around are silent when the truth comes out, and Gessler is found to be wasting everyone's time. The fact is, Gessler has done more to disprove the right's endless allegations of voter fraud in American elections than most of his opponents, but you'll never hear that from True the Vote. The true purpose for Gessler and conservative "vote fraud watchdogs" in these witch hunts, sowing doubt in the process and chilling participation by perfectly legal citizens, provides an ongoing raison d'être no matter what the facts are.At this point, we believe Gessler depends on the outcome getting less attention.
Once again it might be useful to know if the gentleman in question thinks of himself as more of a pathological liar or a garden-variety crackpot.#For a "Sunday Classics" fix anytime, visit the stand-alone "Sunday Classics with Ken."
