Secretary of State's Office Under Assault
Submitted by Jeff on Mon, 10/20/2008 - 6:18pm.
The Republican Party's utterly baseless allegation that Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is facilitating voter fraud (and that the Democratic Party is attempting to "rig the election") has unleashed an assault on the basic functioning of her office just as preparations for the general election are in high gear:
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner announced on Monday afternoon that the state website has been set in a static mode with limited functionality as a precaution. The Ohio State Highway Patrol will assist with an investigation of one or more security breaches detected by the Secretary of State."Due to security concerns experienced by the Secretary of State's website, full functionality of the website has been suspended to protect the integrity of state records and data. Full functionality will be restored when we are assured that all data has been protected to acceptable levels of security," said Secretary of State Brunner.
"Our focus is and has always been to protect the vote of every eligible Ohio voter from any kind of fraud, be it voter registration fraud, illegal voting or vote suppression. This action has been taken to detect and prosecute any illegal breach of our voting infrastructure to maintain voter confidence," said Secretary Brunner.
Unfortunately, this is not the first instance of direct assault on the operations of the Secretary of State's office. In recent weeks, phone lines and e-mail channels have been barraged, even in the business filings section of the office, with menacing messages and even threats of harm or death. Last week, a suspicious package covered with threatening messages and containing an unidentified powder was mailed to the Secretary of State's office via the previous location of the Client Services Center. These incidents are also under investigation.
The Secretary of State's office will continue to work in the best interest of Ohio voters and the boards of elections as we continue our preparation for a successful election.
This has gone far beyond anyone's definition of acceptable political tactics. As State Sen. Teresa Fedor wrote at Glass City Jungle yesterday, the Republicans are "trying to destroy our election system just to win an election" (although I would add that their other goal of unseating Brunner in 2010 is also in the mix). This despicable assault comes a hell of a lot closer to "destroying the fabric of democracy" than anything ACORN has allegedly committed, even in John McCain's feverish imagination.
This fits with the rest of McCain's strategy
The McCain campaign has unleashed forces that have all the characteristics of a fascist putsch. And McCain and his allies are directly responsible for the 1) coded rascism; 2) "socialist" name calling; 3) thuggery-friendly crowds; 4) "big lie" (ACORN, Ayers, etc); 5) direct and indirect assaults on democratic voting.
It is almost textbook. And before you accuse me of an over-heated imagination, consider that such putches have taken place in the most civilized of Western countries (and other places) facing the very kind of economic strains we now face as a result of plutocracy-enabling government policies.
Whether the worst happens or not, McCain has certainly shown himself to lack the core of Arizona conservatism that his predecessor had -- self-control, realism (rather than McCain's frenzied, narcissism), decency and most of all deep patriotism. In the future, when people think of Barry Goldwater, no one will assiciate him with McCain.