The Folks

I'm going to launch into Bill O'Reilly populist mode tonight, hence my reference to "the folks."  For those who don't know, Bill O'Reilly is the host of a popular Fox News political program (the O'Reilly Factor) that recently became the #1 cable program in its time slot, bumping that unctuous ass Larry King to second place, and O'Reilly makes frequent reference on his program to "the folks" (i.e. the coming Gore/Greenspan recession is "going to hurt the folks").

I've been watching portions of these various Florida court cases, which are growing more distasteful by the day.  I marveled at Phil Beck in the main AlGore contest proceeding when he just destroyed two AlGore expert witnesses, because the man was devastating in his cross examinations, and I admire greatness in any endeavor.  Even so, I felt badly for one of the expert witnesses who used the term "I imagine..." once (something many of us do in casual conversation) and had to put up with Beck asking him from then on after every question "or was that something you imagined also?"  It was effective, but it was nasty, and I had a conversation with Callie that night about how hateful things had gotten because AlGore refused to face reality and concede (largely Goldberg's opinion in the article I quoted above), how a lot of people ("the folks") were about to get hurt because of this denial of reality, and that it was disgusting that after it's all over, AlGore would return to the family farm to live off the family trust with no concern for the wreckage they've left behind.

Tonight, I've watched some of the Seminole and Martin Country proceedings, and I'm just sick with what's happened to "the folks" tonight.  Republican party members in these two counties as well as the elections staff have come under criticism for alleged noncompliance with technical provisions of Florida's absentee ballot APPLICATION procedures.  I won't argue the merits of the cases here, but I'll admit that these people probably bent the rules a bit.  They did not engage in intentional fraud and I don't think they even realized they were bending the rules.  One has to keep in mind how "things work" in rural counties (much like the one where I grew up), which are libertarian in many ways, particularly in the sense that intrusive laws are not always followed "to the letter" when no harm is done otherwise.  I think Republicans in these two counties -- idiots that they are -- were simply trying to be helpful, and operating as they probably have for decades in the two counties in question.  Tonight, the lawyers have just savaged them, painting an "evil conspiracy" (the likes of which these poor simple fools couldn't pull off had it even crossed their small minds), impugning their integrity, and essentially deeming them lawbreakers.  It's been brutal.  And it's just sickening to watch.  Reputations of real, everyday, well-meaning rural people ("the folks") are being ruined here.  These people are quite obviously intellectually outgunned by the highly compensated lawyers who are attacking them -- a comparable situation would be me debating Objectivism with a first grader!  Even worse, the Republicans apparently don't take the Martin County case very seriously, as they've not dispatched their high-powered legal team (i.e. Barry Richard, Phil Beck, etc) to help out with this case.  The Republican counsel for the defendants in Martin County has been horrendous thus far, leaving the idiot Republican witnesses to flail.  Brutal, it is.  And sick.

AlGore could have prevented all of this by conceding gracefully after the US Supreme Court spanked the FL Supreme Court, and Judge Sanders Sauls spanked David Boies like he has never been spanked in his legal career.  Were he really the populist he claimed (among other things) to be during the first campaign (this is now the second campaign), surely AlGore would have had some consideration for "the folks" who are now being destroyed in front of the neighbors they're going to be facing long after AlGore and Tubber drag themselves back to the farm to suckle off the tit of the family trust.  As with virtually everything AlGore says, the populism turned out to be a lie as well.

Like Mr. Goldberg, I'm sick to death of Florida.  Actually, I'm just sick.

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