Marc Elias Sets the Wall Street Journal Straight

Ever since election night, the Wall Street Journal's editorial page has been huffing and puffing and insinuating that Al Franken is trying to "steal the election," "conjure up. . . disqualified[] ballots," "invent votes," etc. They utterly fail to back up any of their voter fraud claims, and just rattle on and on about how they see "funny business" and "potential fraud."

Today, Marc Elias (Franken's attorney) goes through the Wall Street Journal's ridiculous claims, one-by-one, and tears them apart. On the Wall Street Journal editorial page itself, no less.

UPDATE: On FOX News, in their never-ending quest to de-legitimize the state-mandated recount process, they are now falsely claiming that Minnesota Secretary of State Ritchie is a "former member of the Communist Party." That is a shameful lie, and the crudest kind of propaganda.

UPDATE II: Former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough (R-FL) is now saying that "Al Franken only needs to steal 130 more votes to win that thing," apparently insinuating that Franken is a brazen vote-thief, hatching a plot to steal the votes and steal the election. Scarborough, of course, does nothing whatsoever to substantiate his claims. The best he can do is make vague allusions to the discredited votes-in-the-car meme ("he can . . . hide 130 votes in the back of a station wagon"), which Marc Elias thoroughly debunked.

UPDATE III: Without citing any evidence, Rush Limbaugh jumps on board:

The Democrats are in the process of stealing the Franken-Coleman election in Minnesota. They're doing it. They're finding all these votes. . . . They're stealing that Senate race right under everybody's nose. . . . I think our elections have been corrupted. In fact, there's no doubt in my mind the elections have been corrupted.

UPDATE IV: FOX News' Fred Barnes is also peddling the votes-in-the-car meme.

Bhutto Assassinated

Benazir Bhutto was killed in a suicide attack this morning. Given my previous post about the excessive media coverage of campaign strategy and political horse race issues, maybe they'll slow down and explain the complex political situation in Pakistan now.

UPDATE: Nope. They'll always find a way to turn an issue back to the horse race.