Digby on the California recall:
This unprecedented recall election is not actually about Davis vs. Issa/ Schwartzenegger/Simon or somebody better. It’s about whether it is acceptable that some rich guy finances a petition drive (with paid signature gatherers) in order to overturn an undisputed legal election so that he might get himself (or somebody else) elected with far fewer votes instead. It’s of a piece with some other nasty political shenannigans we’ve seen recently — like impeachment over a blowjob, refusing to count legal votes in Florida and redistricting whenever you get enough votes to do it. These things are chipping away at our system in ways that can potentially cause disaster in the not too distant future. When you start screwing with the actual levers of democracy — the predictablity of elections, the integrity of the electoral system and a universal acceptance of the results, you have a big problem on your hands.