Just when Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s article in Rolling Stone was about to pass from sight and mind, Bob Herbert of the New York Times steps in and tries the journalistic equivalent of CPR.  "Those Pesky Voters," New York Times (June 12, 2006) at A21.  For Herbert, there are apparently two reasons to trust in the RFK analysis:

1. His article is "long" and it is "heavily footnoted."

2. Herbert was convinced as early as Election Day 2004 that Republicans were stealing the election, as they did in Florida.

     Hence:  "the democratic process was trampled and left for dead in the Buckeye state."

     Herbert may confuse some readers with this qualification:  "No one has been able to prove that the election in Ohio was hijacked."  This is, however, what Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. proposed to do:  to prove that the election in Ohio was hijacked.  Mr. Herbert’s point has at this point collapsed. 

     The Republican record on voting rights is poor, and the GOP should be called to account for it.  Reforms, like nonpartisan election administration, can help address some of these problems, correcting for real bias and also reassuring the public about the quality and honesty of administrative planning and practice.  The emphasis on fraud does not help either of these goals:  it impedes the chances of realizing them.  As noted here, the Republicans understand that the argument over fraud works in their favor, and they raise it at every possible turn, as Ken Mehlman recently did in the wake of the California special election to the House.  See here.   

     "Fraud" is the GOP program for election reform, and Bob Hebert appears now to support it.

Bob Bauer