In Washington Politics, Crime Pays

So ruled Chelan County Superior Court Judge John Bridges today, upholding Democrat Christine Grinchoire's theft of Washington's 2004 gubernatorial election and advising rightful winner Dino Rossi, in essence, to hold onto his wallet tighter next time.

Lest this sound like sour grapes, I would direct you to my last two posts on this subject (here and here) from four months ago, in which, while spiritedly making the ample case for taking away Grinchoire's ill-gotten gain and forcing her to make restitution besides, I predicted the ultimate outcome of the election contest case, just as I predicted the recount ripoff itself two months before that.

As I said back in the depths of winter, "If it's not close, they can't cheat; if it is close, cheat first, because possession is nine-tenths of the law."

That was the substance of Judge Bridges' decision, ruling that because the Republicans couldn't show the court the vote cast on each and every illegal ballot - to which they were barred access - they couldn't "prove" that all the ballot box stuffing in King County, where Grinchoire won by a twenty-point margin, benefitted the Donkette in her niggardly 129-vote "victory."

His rationale for setting the bar so ludicrously high? Better sit down for this one: judicial restraint. One can only imagine how different his decision would have been had the positions been switched. But it isn't surprising that Judge Bridges would hide so conveniently behind a constructionist principle that so few of our true rulers honor anymore. He said basically the same thing a few months back when Rossi's lawyers asked for summary judgment ordering a new election as soon as possible: "I don't have the authority to order a new election." The moment I heard that the logic was crystal clear: if he wouldn't order a new election this spring, why would he vacate the governor's mansion and trigger a new election in the fall?

Reaction from the center-right blogosphere has been mainly naive and point-missing with a little hard-headed leavening mixed in here and there. Andy McDonald at Sound Politics takes the "It's not the end of the world" angle. Captain Ed is apparently unaware that the Washington legislature is controlled by the Democrats. Brother Hinderaker is a lot more lucid, correctly observing that by the Bridges standard, every election contest would be futile.

It is one of Michelle Malkin's emailers who comes closest to the proverbial pin, echoing someone you all know and (hopefully) love:

In the Washington case, of course the petitioners could not "prove" their case, as they did not have the same access to the ballots as the people who fraudulently kept "finding" ballots and counting them. Had the petitioners been allowed to audit each ballot against the voter sign-in records and voter registrations, they could have effectively proved their case. However, they were left offering common sense and conjecture in their case as they were not allowed to see the evidence by the "keepers of the count."

So, these other bloggers may be advocating better organization next time and better get-out-the-vote efforts, but as long they allow people who will lie, cheat and steal to count the votes, the honest folk will never win.

Welcome to the Everblue State, which can't even be compared to Ukraine anymore, since their election heist was reversed; and where Dino Rossi's political career - and the last vestiges of the illusion that there's such a thing as a competitive Republican Party - are dead and buried.