Sam Reed Must Be Worried About His Own Neck

Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed has been the focus of much debate over the last two weeks as he aimed his support toward Democrat Christine Gregoire in the fraudulent gubernatorial election. Some argued that Reed, a Republican, was simply following his interpretation of the law and putting partisan politics aside. If so, that was commendable.

Now, however, he seems to be taking it a step further, turning a blind eye to the outrageous fraud that saw Gregoire take the election by a hair in the third, statewide hand recount. To say that what went on King County was fair, much less legal, cuts his credibility to zero.

Changing the rules midstream, marking ballots with ink pens, giving Gregoire the infamous "Christine Rossi" write-in vote and the dozens of other examples of questionable practices make Rossi's call for a new election the only fair one.

Part of it is self-serving for Reed. He wants his own office to come out of this looking competent and clean. Beyond that, though, I think Reed is worried about his own neck. He can't afford to take on the Democrat machine/Seattle elitist media establishment and he knows it. So he caves into their pressure at the expense of American democratic principles and standards. That's the very essence of corruption.


Seattle Times:

...Republican candidate Dino Rossi, a former state legislative leader and real-estate investor, said the election was hopelessly flawed and that the Legislature should authorize a new election. He won both of the earlier counts.

Rossi also held open the possibility of contesting the election in the courts.

"I do not feel like this has been a botched election," Sam Reed told a news conference. But he said that because it was so close, any error discovered took on great significance.

"I saw serious mistakes being made. I saw them being corrected," Reed said. "That's part of the process. The system itself has worked well."

"Nothing that I have been informed about rises to the level of fraud," Reed said. "There have been human errors. There have been mistakes. At this time there is nothing that appears fraudulent."