Demand Justice for Mike!

Among all the excitement of the Democratic races this weekend and the impressive sweep by Senator Barack Obama, there was another story that seems to have been overlooked: the brazen election fraud committed against underdog former Governor Mike Huckabee in the Washington Republican party caucuses.

This has significant implications for the November race -- and we can help.  Follow me below the fold ...

As you probably know, Huckabee obliterated Senator John McCain in Kansas and beat him in Louisiana, as well.  Losing the first two contests after having been annointed the presumptive nominee is bad enough, from McCain's perspective; going 0-for-3 would have been horrible.

So in the last of the three contests, in Washington, the state chairman -- a McCain backer named Luke Esser -- decided to take matters into his own hands.  I'll let Josh Marshall describe what happened next:

As you know, here at TPM we've been really curious what happened up in the Republican caucus in Washington state. For probably the first time in all the primaries and elections I've ever watched, the folks running the election decided to stop counting the votes with 13% of the votes uncounted. And this wasn't a 70-30 blow out, but a tight race where the two top vote getters were separated by less than 2% of the vote. Then this morning, state party chair Luke Esser decided to declare McCain the winner.

After intense pressure from the Huckabee camp -- including threats of litigation -- Esser decided to resume counting the votes.  Sometime.  Maybe this week.  When he gets around to it.  And he plans to count "close to 100 percent" of them, honest.

Apparently unimpressed, Huckabee's daughter-in-law Lauren, who is serving as the campaign's attorney, demanded that lawyers working for the Huckabee campaign be allowed to observe the count.  The response?

They hung up on her.

Look, we all know that Huckabee isn't going to be the Republican nominee, because hell hasn't frozen over yet.  On the left, we may find Huckabee's religious fundamentalism creepy and disturbing, but right is scared silly of the populist themes he's been espousing.  To a proper Republican, worshipping Jesus is supposed to be about hating the gays, not feeding the poor.  

So while the party elders may not be wild about McCain, there's no way they'll let Huckabee get the nomination.  The tricky question for them has been: how do you kneecap the man in such a way as to take him out of the running without pissing off his followers, who just happen to be among the party's most loyal foot-soldiers?

Well, they just did a take-down that would make Tonya Harding proud.  And fundamental fairness suggests -- nay, DEMANDS -- that we step in to call attention to this deplorable situation.  Oh sure, it may stir up some internecine strife within the GOP that will make our daily candidate flaming on dKos look like a walk in the park.  But why should we be the only ones to have a civil war?  I say -- let's help the Republicans have one of their own!

Here's what you can do to help:

Demand an investigation be started by the Washington attorney general's office.  Mike deserves justice!

Send a letter to the editor, expressing outrage that the Republican establishment would try to rob Mike.  You could write to the papers in Washington, like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Seattle Times, or the Spokane SpokesmanReview.

Better still, write to the paper in your hometown, calling attention to the fraud in west.  Bonus points if you have an upcoming primary or caucus -- demand that the Republican leaders in your state be watched and held accountable to make sure Mike isn't robbed again!

The Huckabee campaign is prepared to fight this all the way to the convention.  And if his supporters are aware of how the GOP stole the nomination from their guy, they may just stay home in November.  A tragic, but unavoidable result of such blatant fraud.

In all seriousness, the Republican Party has a history of electoral fraud and attempted fraud that would make any third-world dictator proud.   This is the only way they can win -- by cheating.  Help keep it in the public eye now and you'll prepare the ground for the fight that will come in November -- when they're not just trying to steal from one of their own, but steal from you!

We helped keep Mitt Romney in the race an extra month in Michigan -- can we help keep Mike Huckabee going by standing up for fair and free elections, even in the GOP?  Yes, we can!  Justice for Mike!