I Thought I Said To Tell Me I Didn't See This

With regard to the Carter-Baker commission on federal election reform, a little over two weeks ago I wrote the following:

It would be nice to think that perhaps the arguably worst president in American history would take a serious look at the staggeringly brazen perfidy and corruption of his own party, both in Florida 2000 and last year in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Wisconsin, among other places. But he's a Deathocrat, which means this laughably mislabeled "bipartisan" commission will strictly pursue the paranoid conspiracy nonsense promulgated by the ultra-left and produce recommendations that will have the effect of making it even more difficult to insure the integrity of our election process - from which, of course, only Democrats will benefit.

Similarly, it would be a comfort to believe that the ostensible Republicans on this "bipartisan" panel could be relied upon to stoutly resist their DisLoyal counterparts. But the three members mentioned in the AP story - James Baker, former New York congresswoman Susan Molinari-Paxon, and Bush41 Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher - are RINOs all. They're just there for appearance's sake - it's Carter, ex-senator (love the sound of that) Tom Daschle, and former Indiana congressman Lee Hamilton (late of the equally unhelpful 9/11 commission) who will be calling the shots.

As if to underscore that pessimistic conclusion, now it comes out that the executive director of this commission will be Carter crony and acolyte Dr. Robert Pastor. And, as Matt Margolis points out over at Blogs4Bush, this "Pastor" preaches at the "church of the poisoned mind": [ed. note: That's a Culture Club reference; I couldn't find a reliable explanatory link. You know, Culture Club; Boy George; that little weirdo Brit back in the '80s who dressed up in Madonna's hand-me-downs...oh, never mind...]

Back in October 2004, Pastor, a registered Democrat, endorsed John Kerry for President, and is on record saying, "Four more years of President Bush could irrevocably stain the image and the influence of The United States in the world."

His own biography on the American University website showcases his liberal background.

[F]rom 1985 until 1998, he was a Fellow and Founding Director of the Carter Center's Latin American and Caribbean Program and the Democracy and China Election Projects. At The Carter Center, he founded and served as the Executive Secretary of the Council of Freely-Elected Heads of Government, a group of 32 leaders of the Americas, chaired by former US President Jimmy Carter. From 1977-81, he was Director of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs on the National Security Council. He was the Senior Advisor to the Carter-Nunn-Powell mission to Haiti and was nominated by President Clinton to be Ambassador to Panama in 1993.

If that's not enough for you, I'm sure you'll find it quite interesting that from 1999-2000 he was co-chairman of Advisory Group on the Americas for the Gore-Lieberman Campaign, and was vice-chairman of the Gore-Lieberman Campaign In Georgia. Back in 1996, he was was vice-chairmanr of the Clinton-Gore Campaign in Georgia. During this time, he was also a surrogate speaker for President Clinton and Vice President Gore. He has a long liberal resume worth your perusal.

Boy, there are times when I really hate being right.

If the RINOs on this sham commission had a collective ounce of pride, principle, partisan loyalty, or self-respect, they would resign en bloc in protest of Pastor's appointment. But then, if Baker, Molinari-Paxon, or Mosbacher had any pride, principle, partisan loyalty, or self-respect, they would never have accepted their designated roles as legitimizers of this kangeroo court in the first place.

Margolis asks:

Can we really trust this guy to be objective when judging our electoral proposing reforms? Perhaps he'll just advocate an election reform bill as bad as Hillary's Count Every Vote Act.

I think Matt is an optimist. If these people have their way, they'll do to the American election system what George Soros' personal constitutional convention seeks to do to our nation's founding documents: finish it off as a meaningfully functioning democratic process once and for all.