As if her shameful attempt to disenfranchise the state of Ohio were not bad enough, California’s newly re-elected idiot Barbara Boxer further embarasses herself by non-explaining her actions on her web site.

Statement On Her Objection To The Certification Of Ohio’s Electoral Votes

January 6, 2005

For most of us in the Senate and the House, we have spent our lives fighting for things we believe in – always fighting to make our nation better.

Most, of course, does not mean all. For well over a century, “most” Congressmen and Senators have had the good sense to accept defeats when they happen.

We have fought for social justice.

Translated: when society hasn’t gone our way, we screamed “waaah, it ain’t fair!”

We have fought for economic justice.

Translated: when other people earned more than we did, we screamed “waaah, it ain’t fair!”

We have fought for environmental justice. We have fought for criminal justice.

Translated: when criminals and the environment …. aw hell, you know the drill.

Now we must add a new fight – the fight for electoral justice.

Translated: if democracy doesn’t produce the result we wanted…

Every citizen of this country who is registered to vote should be guaranteed that their vote matters, that their vote is counted, and that in the voting booth of their community, their vote has as much weight as the vote of any Senator, any Congressperson, any President, any cabinet member, or any CEO of any Fortune 500 Corporation.

[Emphasis added.]

Well, most Senators, anyway. Any, really, except that one Senator who tried to cancel the votes of over 5.7 million citizens in Ohio.

I am sure that every one of my colleagues – Democrat, Republican, and Independent – agrees with that statement. That in the voting booth, every one is equal.

Except me, of course. You know what they say about some animals being more equal than others.

So now it seems to me that under the Constitution of the United States, which guarantees the right to vote,

Actually, it doesn’t, but why sweat the details?

we must ask:

Why did voters in Ohio wait hours in the rain to vote?

Gee, that’s a thinker. Could it be, oh, I dunno, because it was raining in Ohio?!

Why were voters at Kenyan College, for example, made to wait in line until nearly 4 a.m. to vote because there were only two machines for 1300 voters?

Another toughie. Oh wait, I think I got that one too: because there were only two machines for 1300 voters!

Why did poor and predominantly African-American communities have disproportionately long waits?

Why in Franklin County did election officials only use 2,798 machines when they said they needed 5,000? Why did they hold back 68 machines in warehouses? Why were 42 of those machines in predominantly African-American districts?

Why did, in Columbus area alone, an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 voters leave polling places, out of frustration, without having voted?

I don’t know, why don’t you ask them? Notice how much more hot and bothered Babs is over these 5,000 to 10,000 than she was over the 10,000 to 15,000 in the Florida Panhandle who left polling places out of frustration in 2000 after the media called the state for Gore. No one made that mistake this time around, and everyone knew the election was likely to turn on Ohio, so whoever couldn’t be bothered to vote has no one but themselves to blame.

How many more never bothered to vote after they heard about this?

Why is it when 638 people voted at a precinct in Franklin County, a voting machine awarded 4,258 extra votes to George Bush. Thankfully, they fixed it – but how many other votes did the computers get wrong?

Oh, I dunno. Pick a number between 1 and 285.

Why did Franklin County officials reduce the number of electronic voting machines in downtown precincts, while adding them in the suburbs? This also led to long lines.

In Cleveland, why were there thousands of provisional ballots disqualified after poll workers gave faulty instructions to voters?

Probably the same reason there so many invalid provisional ballots everywhere else. A better question is, why does anyone care about the provisional ballots anyway? Before any were counted, Bush’s lead was solid enough to make a Kerry comeback mathematically impossible even if 100% of the provisional ballots had been valid, which of course they weren’t.

Because of this, and voting irregularities in so many other places, I am joining with Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones to cast the light of truth on a flawed system which must be fixed now.

On that, I suppose we can agree. Any system that allows a Senator from California to stick her nose into matters purely internal to Ohio is flawed indeed, and must be fixed now. As it stands only state officials can be recalled, not federal ones. Let’s fix that.

Our democracy is the centerpiece of who we are as a nation. And it is the fondest hope of all Americans that we can help bring democracy to every corner of the world.

As we try to do that, and as we are shedding the blood of our military to this end, we must realize that we lose so much credibility when our own electoral system needs so much improvement.

Yet, in the past four years, this Congress has not done everything it should to give confidence to all of our people their votes matter.

After passing the Help America Vote Act, nothing more was done.

A year ago, Senators Graham, Clinton and I introduced legislation that would have required that electronic voting systems provide a paper record to verify a vote. That paper trail would be stored in a secure ballot box and invaluable in case of a recount.

There is no reason why the Senate should not have taken up and passed that bill. At the very least, a hearing should have been held. But it never happened.

Translation: forget that litany of mundane, dubious and generally inconsequential allegations about Ohio. This isn’t about Ohio anyway. It’s all about me, and my pet projects.

Before I close, I want to thank my colleague from the House, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones.

Her letter to me asking for my intervention was substantive and compelling.

So substantive, I might add, and so compelling, that neither of the two Senators representing Ohio saw fit to act on it.

As I wrote to her, I was particularly moved by her point that it is virtually impossible to get official House consideration of the whole issue of election reform, including these irregularities.

The Congresswoman has tremendous respect in her state of Ohio, which is at the center of this fight.

Which is why only a Senator from California wants any part of it.

Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones was a judge for 10 years. She was a prosecutor for 8 years. She was inducted into the Women’s Hall of Fame in 2002.

Wow! She must be right because she’s, um, famous! Let’s have a quick show of hands among all non-Ohio readers. How many of you, prior to this election cycle, how many of you had ever heard of prosecutor/judge/Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones? Can just any woman with a career get inducted? And if she was inducted, why doesn’t her name appear here? Perhaps there are two National Women’s Halls of Fame, and Ms. Jones got inducted into the less famous one?

I am proud to stand with her in filing this objection.

There’s Babs’s biggest problem right there, in a nutshell. Everyone has their occasional excesse, but unlike most normal people, she’s not ashamed of hers; she’s friggin’ proud. Yeesh. I really have to get out of this state.

Dishonorable mention goes to Bill Jones, the Republican who made this all possible by losing to today’s idiot in November.

UPDATE: Matthew Hoy, Captain Ed, Michael Williams, Baldilocks, Right Thinking Girl, Two Crackas Clark Smith and Res Ipsa Loquitur concur in the judgment, while the usual moonbat suspects dissent. Move along, people. Nothing to see here.

UPDATE x2: Via Drudge, it seems the boo-hoo references above were more literal than I thought.

UPDATE x3: John Kalb thinks Babs is dumb like a fox. There may be something to that.