Republican Desperation

The Republicans are truly becoming desperate and are finding new forms of perfidy to give them a shot in 2008. Hendrik Hertzberg reports on a California GOP attempt to make the state give their votes to presidential candidates by district. Only Maine and Nebraska do this. What this would do is split up California's 55 electoral votes, with 20 or so going to the Republican nominee.

Now I don't have such a huge problem with this on a national level. If you have to have something as stupid as the electoral college, making it as democratic as possible is a good thing. But of course these same Republicans would oppose this measure vociferously if proposed in Texas, Florida, or Tennessee. Allowing California to unilaterally split up their votes means a Republican victory in '08. The chances are that this does not pass. But it is a serious threat.

I still wonder how prepared Democrats are to counter Republican dirt. Ady Barkan chastises Harry Reid for allowing the Republican Senate minority to control the agenda through their filibuster threats. His solution--let them filibuster. I could not agree more. Pick the issue you want to start this with--do you want to see Republicans filibustering to support the war? To support HMOs? To oppose a minimum wage hike? And then watch them self-destruct. I would guess that if forced to, the Republicans would cave on most of these issues rather than have to publicly announce how in bed they are with interests counter to most Americans. But Reid seems afraid to do this. Why? I wish I knew.