Your response to Washington Governor candidate Christine Gregoire's plea for help has been overwhelming. Thanks to your generosity, the recount in Washington will now go forward. With only 42 votes separating Gregoire and her Republican opponent, today we can ensure that every ballot is accurately counted. This could not have happened without you.

Your incredible grassroots support is vital to our continued fight to ensure a full and legitimate count of every single vote in this election and future elections. In addition to our strong commitment to the recount in Washington State, the Democratic Party has empowered the Ohio Democratic Party to represent us as our official observer during the recount. We will make sure that every vote in Ohio is counted.

But we aren't stopping there. After consulting with our Voting Rights Institute staff, Voting Protection Coordinators, Ohio legal team, Party activists, supporters, elected officials, and others, and after reviewing available information, the Democratic National Committee has decided to conduct a thorough investigation of key election issues arising from the conduct of the 2004 general election in Ohio.

This investigative study will address the legitimate questions and concerns that have been raised in Ohio and will develop factual information that will be critically important in crafting further key election reforms. This project seeks to answer such questions as:
* Why did so many people have to wait in line in certain Ohio precincts and not others?
* Why weren't there enough machines in some counties and not others?
* Why were so many Ohioans forced to cast provisional ballots?


We will find answers to help implement and advocate reforms in the future.

Let me be clear. We do not expect either the recount in Ohio or our investigation to overturn the results of this election. But both are vital to protecting every American's voting rights in future elections. And the Democratic Party will never waver when it comes to upholding this sacred trust.

Thank you again for your incredible support.

Sincerely,

Terry McAuliffe
Chairman

Okay, I just got this too. What do you think it means???? Only future election reforms, or counting the votes for THIS election?

.... and the investigation shall also include our own internal policies and practices including, but not limited to, actually being prepared for election day... employing tactics to counter known GOP practices that have always been undertaken in the past.... which we completely ignored this time. We are prepared to finally take action toward correcting voting issues that have allowed Republicans to whip us like a dog on election day. We will finally take steps to thwart the GOP election winning / stealing methodologies.

Those of us in DNC/DLC leadership positions will be undergoing rectocraniotomies to remove our heads from our arses. We will also be undergoing cerebral implants to replace our non-existent intellect so that we can finally function as normal intelligent individuals capable of formulating new ideas.

We are planning to undergo subconscious reprogramming to eliminate the tendency to try to appeal to all sides of every issue... and further plan to have a "Democratic ideals implant" to overcome the recent lack of any clear position on any issue and the tendency to take "Republican lite" positions as the party line.

Also...


We also plan on having a "gut" implant so that those in leadership positions in the party will have the intestinal fortitude to stand up for those who have placed their confidence in the Democratic party, its leadership and candidates. This will enable us to take on adveraries and fight for our side of issues and also to stand up to blatant injustices foisted upon the American public by the GOP.

This will also eliminate the need for the online community to be our primary offensive unit. In the past few years we have relied solely on the online community to fight our battles. They have been repsonsible for doing the research, organizing events and people on our behalf, being our media representatives, and basically undertaking all defensive and offensive undertakings on our behalf. We will finally be able to do what we should have rightfully been doing all along.

Sincerely,

Your lame Democratic leadership

On the Democratic National Committee website today, it says that the DNC calls for an investigation of the 2004 election for the FUTURE, and that they DO NOT contest this election. Are they Republicans?

So, are they going to pay back all the money that they gathered as contributions in 2004?

Should we sue them for malpractice, let's see, I think a good lawyer is now looking for a job... maybe we should hire him... John Edwards.

Someone reply to that email and tell him to see if the MACHINES
were rigged. Why do they keep leaving that out? Do they
not understand what we are saying?

I think they are all just speaking the company line on this matter. If anything can overturn this election, they will find it and prosecute it. They all seem to mimmick the same thing when asked. Maybe a strategy?

At this point I believe the "party line" is. "Let's make it look good". We don't want to lose our supporters who have been fighting this so hard.

If they were really supportive then they would have taken an active role for the past month. This is merely just a move for appearance sake to placate those of us who have fought the election results for the past month. I would only look for serious action by the DNC if the election recount favors JK... and since JK was not a party to the suit that will not likely be until too late anyway.

THE DNC NEEDS ITS WHOLE HOUSE CLEANED. We need new leadership from top to bottom.

i'm sorry but terry mcauliffe is part of the problem!

here's what i posted in another thread, in reply to the following quote from the ny times:

Snip<<<<<<

Democratic officials, walking a fine line between their angry liberal base and centrist voters who consider the election over, said they were not contesting the results. But they said they planned to use the results of their investigation, which is to be completed by the summer, to demand changes to the electoral systems in Ohio and other states.
Snip<<<<<unquote


here we have it: the compromise democractic officials, "walking a fine line," trying to please everybody.

for the record, let me ask them how they think they are going to turn up any results or evidence without doing recounts which would allow for the machines and tabulators to be checked/impounded, if need be. how will they be able to prove or disprove the voting fraud allegations when they don't even have the necessary tools to do so.

let me guess: they'll come out with a doorstopper report no one will be reading or paying attention to.

business as usual.

DOES ANYONE HAVE HIS EMAIL ADDRESS OR THE EMAIL ADDRESS USED TO SEND THE MCAULIFFE MESSAGE ABOVE?

Look -- if you have a dead patient (democracy), you don't want to do anything that might hurt the patient anymore. That is why the DNC is not raising a bigger fuss. It might hurt the dead patient.

his entire message is pathetic.

From: Terry McAuliffe <democraticparty@democrats.org>
Sent: Dec 7, 2004 11:50 AM

Came from:
dnc-002Yv03Tnt@mailer.democrats.org

is it just me or does he come off sounding spineless and clueless?

His main concern is not harming the dead patient.

This is just beyond weird. How many more times are they going to say they know it won't overthrow the Ohio vote? Impeachment for fraud is going to get us nothing but a mess, maybe worse than what we already have. I'm so disgusted at this point, and I haven't been until now.

I want my country back!

What a joke. His whole leadership is pathetic.

My take on it is:

They are trying to appease us by saying that something is being done. I believe they are investigating. When they keep saying that they do not expect for the election results to change it is to not stir things without first having hard evidence.

However, as stated above on this thread, my BIG question is: why are they not saying anything about the e-vote, the possibility of the machines being rigged? Is is because they don't want to alert the republicans or is it that they feel incapable of discovering anything? If they were to really suspect the machines changed the votes, then there is reason to believe that the vote can be overturned and we would have our President Kerry.

I hope they are being discreet and not discrediting the rigged machines.

i think all mcauffle is trying to do is show a sign of life, so they can't be accused of being roll-over-play-dead democrats (which they probably are...).


clueless and spineless

thanks for posting the email!

YW...

IMHO...you are right BG. The whole involvement of the DNC is now a window-dressing charade designed solely to appease the one's who have fought this so hard. There is no intention for this to present ANY challenge to the election results... only an effort toward maintaining good will within the party.

HOW SAD !!!

Get out the broom... we need to clean the DNC House.