Last week I attended an Ohio Election Preview sponsored by Nationwide Ins Group in Columbus. The event was generally for the suit & tie statehouse crowd but some of us common rabble received invites, probably by accident or oversight. Keynote speaker was Charlie Cook, Publisher of The Cook Report, perhaps the country's most respected campaign news source for federal elections.
As always, Charlie was spot-on on many of his observations and is talking about a possible Democratic Tsunami, but it was the post-session Q & A that was most revealing.
The first question to Charlie was from one of those tin-foil-hat-conspiracy-theorists (thank God) who asked Mr Cook if he thought Ohio's 2004 election results were coming under critical review by the Beltway crowd in light of the July Rolling Stone article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Charlie Cook's short answer: "Naw...there's nothing to the JFK, Jr article...I had Bob Bauer, Kerry and the DNC's election lawyer over to my house and he told us that he (Bauer) has reviewed and fully debunked JFK, Jr's article...it's nothing new...same'ol same'ol...(basically) everybody should quit whining."
So anyhew...we here in Ohio (and on DU) who have been nose to the grindstone for two years trying to get this issue back onto the front pages thru voluminous research, investigation of the BOEs, visits to BOE warehouses, and finally litigation, have, it appears, been set back two years by one rather chatty beltway lawyer: Robert Bauer. Mr Bauer, it appears, has put the kibosh on any followup to the JFK Jr report here in Ohio, thru both the Kerry campaign and the DNC. Worse yet,he is still is flapping his gums all over the DC cocktail circuit to Republicans and Dems alike that JFK Jr's article is just silly.
Here's the fellow's website:
http://pview.findlaw.com/view/1421027_1?noconfirm=0Thanks a lot, chump. Email me and I can show you where Ohio is on the map.
:grr: