In other electoral news...

Josh Marshall looks at the case of a Texan Republican who was beaten by a Vietnamese-American Democrat, the first Democratic gain in the Texas state House in 32 years. And the winning margin was only 32 votes, so a recount is not unexpected. But the Texan Republicans may be looking at avoiding a recount by tossing out the result based on "irregularities" and "voter fraud."

As Marshall comments, "actualy trying to pull this off would be amazingly bold and brazen. But then, look who we're talking about..."

I think this also fits into a GOP pattern of deliberately obscuring the message by attacking with the same ammunition that is being used against them. For example, when allegations of Fascism and the shadow of Nazism began to cloud Bush's image, GOP voices started calling all the terrorists "Islamofascists." Even Democrats became Fascists.

Now, with allegations of vote fraud refusing to die quietly, the GOP strategists could be just fuelling their barrels with some fresh gunpowder to help confuse the media message. Dim-witted pro-Bush TV viewers could soon get a "fair and balanced" 2-minute segment showing allegations of vote fraud being thrown back and forward, which would easily be dismissed as the usual partisan chicanery.