Blackwell on Olbermann

Keith had Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell on, finally, last night. As he writes, Blackwell did protest too much about Jesse Jackson showing up in Ohio and questioning the voting. Of course, Jackson's appearances in Ohio seemed to be the impetus for Blackwell to appear on Countdown, as Olbermann points out. Blackwell is a much better spinner overall than Katharine Harris, in case he's reading this and looking for faint praise.

Here's an excerpt:

But after Jackson spoke in Columbus Sunday and Cincinnati Monday, suddenly Mr. Blackwell was available. “I think what happened,” he said, “is that Jesse Jackson ran around the block and tried to get out in front of a parade that was already on the march.”

That’s an odd phrase. Show of hands, please! Who out of the 20% who believe the election is illegitimate would have believed that a Republican state official would ever compare an Ohio recount to “a parade that was already on the march”? Sounds like a campaign phrase - for Democrats.

Suddenly the recount itself seems like an old pal to Ohio’s top election official. Last week, the incoming president of the association of county election officials mused out loud about a suit to stop the Glibs, so I asked Blackwell if he was saying that his office would take no step to try to prevent the recount. “Once they ask for a recount, we will provide them with a recount… we will regard this as yet another audit of the voting process.”

Blackwell also whined about the cost of a recount. Of course it'd be only a fraction of what we spend per day to 'start a democracy in Iraq', something like $177 million a day. You'd think a million or two spent here in Ohio would be worth it to prove we still have a democracy HERE.


Also, Jesse Jackson is scheduled for tonight's Countdown, 8 PM 12 AM ET