Kentucky election waterworks

Waaaaah!

The obligatory Republican temper tantrum over yesterday's special election in Kentucky is approaching a howl.

The GOP isn't content anymore just to falsely claim an election was rigged by illegal means. Now they're expecting authorities to investigate practices that aren't even illegal.

On the website of the Cincinnati Enquirer (where else?), one Republican commenter suggested:

"They also ought to check the vote hauling in Carter Co."

(Democrat Robin Webb received her highest percentage in Carter County, her home county.)

What this complaint really means? The Republicans are mad because people (gasp!) voted.

Vote hauling is the practice of transporting people to the polls who would otherwise not be able to get there. The Republican trend in rural Kentucky over the past 10 years is partly accounted for by a crackdown on this practice. The media has promoted this crackdown in an effort to keep Democratic voters from getting to the polls.

The crackdown has taken place even though there's nothing illegal or unethical about vote hauling - as long as you're not buying votes. Nothing suggests that Democrats in Carter County or elsewhere were buying votes in yesterday's election.

The ongoing media war against vote hauling is nothing but high-handed voter intimidation to suppress Democratic turnout.

Yet the media remains silent about right-wing pastors who tell their followers they're going to hell unless they vote Republican. These churches buy buses to drive their congregants to the polls on Election Day year after year.

You never hear a peep raised about that - even though IRS rules state that tax-exempt churches cannot endorse partisan candidates.

Indeed, right-wing church leaders were responsible for high Republican turnout yesterday in other counties.

Why the double standard? Why do the Republicans cry about Democratic get-out-the-vote efforts yet ignore Republican efforts that violate IRS rules?

For years, Kentucky has had more outright election fraud by Republicans than you can shake a stick at. Yet now that a Democrat has won an important election, the meme put out by the media talking heads is "THEY CHEATED!!!!!"

I'm not being partisan. I'm a Green, not a Democrat. I've been perhaps more critical of the Democrats than anyone outside the right-wing blogosphere. But the Republicans' tears are as baseless as ever.

If the Republicans are so upset about vote hauling, maybe they should do something about the lack of polling places that are close enough for voters to reach. Again and again, the GOP has killed efforts to add more polling stations.