If Tester does not make any major mistakes and Conrad still win re-election, the nation should ask: What does it take to beat an incumbent Senator?

Get out the Anti-Conrad vote!

Long before the Magic Diebold Machine, of course, it has been possible for incredibly awful politicians to get elected and repeatedly re-elected in this great nation. It comes down to layer after layer of manipulation–a manipulated press, governed by corporate self-interest; national politics governed by posturing spectaculars that distract from hard-core interests; state and local ditto; manipulation of voter rolls (a big factor here is that felons, I mean here folks who have served their time and been released from the criminal justice system, are disfranchised in many places and in turn different classes of people are more or less likely to be apprehended and convicted); manipulation of turnout, especially via selective intimidation. Adding a layer of outright alteration of the actual votes cast that get through all those filters is a largely new thing though with older balloting methods it used to happen too. It is largely and ultimately a matter of political will that fraud can triumph.

But I do think that Republican leadership has been acting more and more these past five years like it simply does not matter how blatant and well-known and understood their offenses against their nominal constituencies are, somehow or other they will always be “vindicated” at the polls, no matter what they have done.

I’ll change my tune on this if there is in fact a Democratic landslide this Novemeber. Maybe. It may turn out that the particular Democrats we get will act much the same; if so, another round goes to the corporate machine and on down the slippery slope to Hell we slide. But I do figure that if the fix is in, the Rs will hold on to a strategic if slim official majority. I don’t think they _want_ more; this way they can still blame Democrats and leftists in general for everything, while being accountable for nothing.

But if they lose that margin of control, I will once again have some hope of a due-process way out of this nightmare.

It is always gratifying to hear just how whacked out these whackos are, and how many people do see through them, even if it does turn out to be irrelevant to official outcomes.

Consider the USA Today/Gallup poll posted on dKos today:

Tester led by 3 points among likely voters; Burns led by 2 points among registered voters

Do we all understand the implication of that? Things don’t look as bad for Burns as one would think. The results are likely to swing based on voter turnout. So get out the damn vote. Find those people in your workplace, or your neighborhood, or your church, or at Lucky Lil’s, who are smart enough to understand how awful Conrad Burns is for this state, but not motivated enough to think voting matters.

Jon Tester is a great candidate. He’s even better than then-newcomer Brian Schweitzer was in 2000, and Conrad damned near lost that one. The fact that he didn’t shakes my confidence greatly. There’s a lot of folks in this state who, for whatever reason, seem to like this good old boy. They will prevail again if we who know better do not get off our asses and reach out beyond our comfort zone of like-minded, politically motivated friends.

[disclaimer: I suck at activism. I talk a much better game than I play]

Certainly not in Montana, they don’t. THey have cabs in Montana? They have cars in Montana? I thought y’all still got around on horses (or asses in the case of the Senator)

Told in exciting new PICTO-FICTION.

Oh wait. I’m pretty sure that already exists. God. Conrad Burns is not only a racist embarrassment, but also a lamewad.

Yesterday, I was getting a ride home from the hospital, and I remember the cabbie yelling and screaming and honking and gesticulating madly at some people who were in his way, and by “some people” I mean a hockey rink. I also seem to remember the skaters, and building, diving for cover at the last second.

(Although, given the amount of painkillers they’d given me at the hospital, I also remember being followed at one point by a 30 foot tall Gary Burghoff riding a day-glo yellow giant flying dolphin, so my recollections should perhaps not be relied upon too closely here.)