Joe Klein now on Webb bandwagon

[beachmom]

http://www.time.com/time/columnist/klein/article/0,9565,1200712,00.html

This quote says exactly what I feel:

"We have one candidate who is appealing and undisciplined and another who is disciplined and unappealing," a prominent Democrat told me. "It's a real problem."

Why can't those pricy consultants (who are working for no pay, BTW) make Webb slicker?

Here is a new dKos diary about this, too:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/6/4/91527/93057

Anyway, the crux of the argument is that Webb is a Reagan Democrat who is folding back into the Democratic party. Well, heck, I can't be against that trend. I'm not a Reagan Democrat but I certainly was not willing to call myself a Democrat until 2004, so I do identify with that. Joe Klein is basically challenging Democrats in Virginia to take the plunge, and trust Webb. I suppose Zell Miller is different -- he was an old time Blue Dog Democrat who went over to the Republicans. Webb was a Republican who has been driven to the Dems by Bush.

Thoughts?

[beachmom]

1. One more detail about Kerry's Webb endorsement

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149188212553&path=!news&s=1045855934842

Kerry endorses Webb in race for Senate
Ex-presidential candidate says Virginia Democrat has best chance to beat Allen

BY MICHAEL HARDY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Jun 3, 2006


Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful James Webb has been endorsed by Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate in 2004.

The Webb campaign announced Kerry's support yesterday with a statement quoting Kerry lauding Webb's courage and candidacy in the June 13 primary.

"I am proud to endorse his courage and his character in his campaign for U.S. Senate," Kerry said. "We need more people of courage in the Senate, and that means we need leaders like Jim who have served honorably in the military and the government serving the country they love.

"He has the best chance to beat George Allen," said Kerry, referring to the Republican U.S. senator who is seeking a second six-year term.



So this is definitely about winning in '06. Kerry is saying Webb is the better bet against Allen.

[beachmom]

2. I did comment on the diary, but just about Kerry, not the primary

in general. I basically am trying to sell Kerry '08 to the Webbies. What the heck.

[beachmom]

3. For Fedup and JohnKleeb

Here is a summary from Alice, who supports Harris Miller, why she is voting for him:

http://gotv.blogspot.com/2006/04/some-of-reasons-i-support-harris.html

P.S. -- hope non-Virginians don't mind the space taken up on this primary. It's on June 13th, and it's a very confusing one, but we don't want to hang out in the Virginia forum or elsewhere where there are only Webb supporters. Thanks for your patience.

[beachmom]

4. And a negative for Harris Miller -- he is against paper trail for Diebold

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=273&topic_id=89811&mesg_id=89838

This has got to be the most confusing primary ever.

[ginnyinWI]

5. I don't mind at all

This is interesting politics. :)

[beachmom]

6. Thanks, GinnyinWI. Okay, guys -- Miller has changed his position

on Diebold per Alice (God love her, she's great):

http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/story/0,10801,107696,00.html

As the president of the ITAA, which includes electronic voting systems vendors among its members, you said in the past that you opposed verifiable paper trails for such systems. For many people in the country, this is a very important issue because of accuracy issues in several recent elections. What is your stand on this issue as a candidate?

I did oppose verifiable paper trails until about a year and a half ago. I was hearing from local registrars, including in Virginia, that they didn't want the additional burden for administration and maintenance that the paper trails would produce with printers and other equipment. But voters want it. It has more voter confidence. My argument at the time was that if is smart enough to take over a machine and register someone's vote internally for the wrong candidate, that they're also smart enough to make it look like the paper trail properly says who you voted for. People could get a false sense of security.


Okay, phew, I feel better!! Unlike what other people say, I like a politician who upon further evidence will change their position, as long as it's not too extreme. His original quote was from a year and a half ago.

[sandnsea]

7. The paper should be the ballot

And the paper tape should be audited so that it matches the machine count. This is like using a Quickbooks report at a tax audit and not having any receipts to back anything up. If our books have to match our receipts, then our votes should too.

[beachmom]

8. I agree. When it mattered Harris Miller was wrong and sided with

corporate interests. He's only changed his position for the Senate race. Will he only support corporate interests in the Senate over the people's?

While a certain amount of government-industrial overlap is to be expected, what is startling about the voting-machine industry is the degree to which this symbiosis has been institutionalized. This is due, in large part, to a curious nonprofit entity called the Election Center and its versatile executive director, Doug Lewis. The Election Center’s members include approximately 1,000 dues-paying state and local election-administration officials, as well some voting-machine vendors. The center provides a host of services for its members, informing them of new developments in election law, sponsoring professional development conferences, and offering training workshops for new election officials. In advance of the last election, the center also performed a quasi-oversight role over the machine-testing process. Specifically, the Election Center, in conjunction with the National Association of State Election Directors, selected which private labs would test new voting-machine technologies.

But in the eyes of many voting-rights activists, the Election Center (and Lewis in particular) acts as a tireless advocate for the industry’s interests. In March, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the center has received tens of thousands of dollars from the major voting-machine vendors in the United States. Lewis also had a hand in forming the e-voting industry’s trade association. In August of 2003, Lewis and Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), the country’s largest IT trade association, hosted a conference call with the presidents of the major e-voting-machine vendors. Academics, such as the indefatigable paper-trail advocate David Dill, a computer scientist at Stanford University, had been publicly questioning the security and viability of DRE systems, and the press was beginning to catch on. In the conference call, Lewis, Miller, and the executives banded together to form a coherent public-relations counteroffensive under the auspices of a new trade association, later called the Electronic Technology Council, to be created as a subsidiary of the ITAA; membership was to be around $100,000 per company. On the council’s Web site, an official statement of neutrality on the issue of voter-verified paper ballots is quickly followed by a long list of reasons why such a requirement would, in fact, be onerous.

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewPrint&articleId=8969

[sandnsea]

9. Oh that's really bad

That Doug Lewis is a really bizarre character. I don't think we ever did figure out exactly who he is or how he ended up with almost all the power over those machines with that Election Center. I didn't know Harris Miller had ever sided with him on anything and that makes me really understand why the "netroots" are against him. Those machines are absolutely hackable and it wouldn't take all that much computer knowledge to do it, whether it's a corporate conspiracy or not. Lewis didn't take the complaints seriously and that whole system was designed to shove these machines out there whether they were secure or not. It bothers me that Miller looks to be complicit in that.

[fedupinBushcountry]

10. This troubles me

and so does his answer to a question about unions for IT workers from Alice's blog.

The next question was from Terry Hartnet who asked Miller about a quote where Miller said IT workers did not need unions. Miller said that most tech workers had pay packages that included stock options they did not need unions. I am guessing that will come as a surprise to many Microsoft workers, but let it go. http://gotv.blogspot.com/2006/03/miller-and-webb-at-fcdc.html

What was he thinking ? Does he know what a union is ? :shrug:

[JohnKleeb]

12. He should knowing where he's from

Blah good thing I am gonna be with my grandparents more since they're the only ones in my family that generally vote in primaries. I told my grandmother that we should support Miller, big mistake. Sigh I may not even vote or dare I write someone else in.

[JohnKleeb]

11. Way I feel right now I may not even vote

There's lots to like and dislike about both of them. I like that Miller has come out in favor of increasing the minimum wage, has local people from my area behind him but I don't like his pro outsourcing, that he's run a negative campaign, his corporate background. Webb I like that he has a populist appeal, that he's talked about losses of jobs, I don't like what he's said about critics of the Vietnam War policy, or that past thing about affirmative action. I will say this both would be better than Allen. I am glad I got much more important things to worry about now than this race. My grandfather just got home from the hospital today and my grandmother can't do it all herself so I may be staying there overnight to help them out.