The historical perspective

As this article notes, the 2000 election wasn't the first one where Florida's African-American voters were disenfranchised with decisive results to the election. Funny how that works.


And in current news, the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign is giving churches "suggestions" on how to mobilize the (Republican) vote. Because, you know, all religious people must be Republican.

Speaking of Republicans, I was looking at andrewsullivan.com today (not a place I would normally be, but I followed some links about Fahrenheit 9/11) and I found this:

THE LOOMING REPUBLICAN WAR: The current tussle in the Congress over the budget is just a precursor to what I think will be outright Republican civil war after this election. If Bush wins, it will cripple his ability to get anything done. If he loses, the recriminations will get vicious. The fiscal conservatives will be fighting the "deficits-don't-matter" crowd. The realists will be out to topple the neocons. The Santorum-Ashcroft axis will continue to wage war on any Republicans not interested in legislating either the Old Testament or the dictates of the Vatican. (The FMA battle now looks more and more like an attempt by Santorum to identify Republican social moderates so he can use primary hardliners to challenge them in the future.) The battle lines are deep and sharp - and the future of American conservatism is at stake. Bush has proven himself unable to unite a party that includes Tom DeLay as well as Arnold Schwarzenegger, John McCain and Bill Frist. Whether the coming civil war is about who lost the election, or who will exploit the victory, it's going to be nasty and enduring. No single party can be both for individual liberty and for theologically-based social policy; both for fiscal balance and drunken-sailor spending; both for interventionism abroad and against moralism in foreign policy. The incoherence is just too deep, the tensions too strained. And with the war on terror itself a point of contention among conservatives, geo-politics will not be able to keep the coalition in one piece.

Interesting. And I thought only the Democrats had this kind of infighting.


Kerry said to be near decision on running mate (from the Boston Globe, so don't count on that link still working tomorrow.)