the Sugar Conspiracy

Monday, July 12, 2004

Ensuring his re-election

U.S. officials have discussed the idea of postponing Election Day in the event of a terrorist attack on or about that day, a Homeland Security Department spokesman said Sunday.

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Newsweek said the discussions about whether the November 2 election could be postponed started with a recent letter to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge from DeForest Soaries Jr., chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

The commission was set up after the disputed 2000 presidential vote to help states deal with logistical problems in their elections.

Soaries, who was appointed by President Bush, is a former New Jersey secretary of state and senior pastor of the 7,000-member First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset.

Newsweek reported that Soaries expressed concern that no federal agency had the authority to postpone an election and asked Ridge to ask Congress to give his commission such power.

So let me get this straight. Soaries wants Congress to give him the power to postpone the elections in which the man who appointed him is running for re-election. Can we say conflict of interest? You know, I seem to remember President Bush saying something about things being easier if this were a dictatorship.

And really, if we postpone the elections, doesn't that mean the terrorists win?

UPDATE: Kevin Drum has some reassuring words.

posted by chris at 12:48 PM
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