It's over -- or is it?

Yeah, it's over. For now.

Citing the potentially prohibitive cost of paying for a recount which could conceivably go either way, Patricia Madrid conceded the CD1 race to five-time incumbent Republican Heather Wilson this morning. Why?

Because it "might have" cost too much. And *this* from the person we supported for opposing the person who supported war against Iraq on the current administration's LIE that Mr. Hussein "might have" had some sort of weapons of mass destruction at his disposal (not counting the chemicals Citizen Rumsfeld smilingly sold to him when we briefly got seriously scared of Ayatollah Khmomeini back in the days of the Iran-Iraq war, of course).

Not that I'm unaccustomed to it at this point, but I am sorely disappointed. I had to hold my nose to vote for her. Not very much, but just enough that now I feel betrayed. Again. By Democrats. Again.

Voting is an excercise in applied existentialism, or, if you prefer, in Prasangika Madhyamikha Buddhism. First noble truth: voting is suffering, suffering is voting, voting is no other than suffering, suffering is no other than voting, and so on, and so forth, ad infinitum.

But behold: those with a generation or two's statistics suggest that each generation rebels against their parents' generation. Both of my parents' generations saw Democrats craft the New Deal, lift the country from Economic Depression, win the biggest war ever, *and* enact the most sweeping Labour Rights, Civil Rights, and Voting Rights reforms in our nation's history. My own father (arguably) did as much as any other single person to desegregate the faculty of the largest State University in the Nation. Much as we might have disliked our parents' generations' party for whatever smaller (if not insignificant) reasons, they did a hell of a lot of just downright GREAT things in the making of this nation, historically (even if they had to steal a bunch of Socialist and even Communist Party planks over time to do it all, while blithely murdering Japanese civilians beneath mushroom clouds, and what have you).

*That's* what our parents' Democratic Party did, and our distaste for our own generation's Democratic Party is no prebubescent reaction against authority. We know perfectly well what our forbears did, and troubled and conditional though our respect of it may be, we *do* respect it. In short, you've got some big damn shoes to fill, and so far, you (Blue Dogs, fuck you) have failed, and failed, and failed, and failed, and failed.

We *are* the two percent. We *won't* stop voting. Learn that, and you may win an important election one of these days. Sooner or later. Maybe.

What decided me in Madrid's favour in this race was what I took to be her principled opposition to the war. Yes, even dedicated Independents and Greens can be hoodwinked. But as Lincoln said, "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me." (Unlike Governor Bush we do know the actual quote.)

You should have seen that second (and only televised) CD1 debate. It was a total train wreck. I have *no* doubt that debate coaches in high schools all around the state taped it for their students, it proved *so* perfect an example of one debater doing almost everything right while the other did almost everything wrong, regardless of the actual issues at stake. It was alomost purely about style and almost not at all about issues. Wilson looked good, even when she flat refused to answer tough questions about substantive issues. Madrid broke down in tears behind the podium, even when answering "soft" questions halfway honestly -- or worse yet, bumbled around endlessly in details about details surrounding the State Treasurer's criminal corruption case that 99% of viewers knew *nothing* about.

Meanwhile the only candidate opposing the war in Iraq in this race *also* expressed support for unproven "Star Wars" missile defence, in such a way she sounded downright disingenuous to *everyone* who might be interested in either issue for very different (and very often overlapping) reasons. (They're not that dumb at the Owl Bar in San Antonio, too bad you couldn't take the time to go down there, or hell, show up to the debate at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, which I *know* lost you a bunch of native votes in the four Counties surrounding Bernalillo where your opponent won, hands-down.)

Hoping to shave a vote or two away from Wilson among labworkers and their families, I guess. Play the swing all you want, you will lose. If I'd been a labworker smart enough to split atoms -- or hell, a labworker smart enough to sweep up split atoms from the floor -- I sure would have been smart enough to know when I was being shamelessly pandered to, even if I *did* support Star Wars.

Normally I'd have voted a blank ballot. I seriously thought Madrid might barely squeak by. And we're down to 874 votes deciding elections where I live now, and given what I went through in 2004, the prospect of being "the" decisive vote is just a little bit too close for comfort. (Not that it changes how I actually vote.) I dare say her concession of the race makes me *more* likely to vote blank ballots in hot upticket races from now on when there's no third party candidate. Well done, indeed!

Then again we do, at least, have secret ballots. (Unless, of course, you're disabled, and failed to get your vote counted by voting on an Automark machine.)

The good news -- yay for me -- is I maintain my absolutely spotless voting record of picking LOSERS in upticket races.

NADER 2000!

My vote doesn't mean shit and I know it. But you *will* have to kill me to stop me from voting.

In her concession speech, Ms. Madrid said if only one person in each precinct had voted for her who voted for Wilson, she would have won.

SHAME ON YOU. This is called "blaming the victim". As Attorney General I should have hoped you would have known how that worked. *All* voters lose when we *can* have no confidence in our electoral system. I could as easily say "had you debated *just* badly enough to not lose one more vote per precinct you might have won". I'm not saying that, though, because it's odious to do so.

And I guess we'll never know whether the ballots were accurately (let alone fairly) counted or not. Yep. Back to Tammany, folks.

And what happened to all those well-funded lobbying organizations that paid top dollar for people willing to go from door to door? Did any of them offer to help support the cost of a recount under New Mexico's unfair election law? (It ain't rhetorical, I *really* want to know! Like NOW. Before I give 'em *any* money. EQNM? Anyone? Hell, did you ever go "mop up" in Precinct 150? Or did you just waste money further harassing the unfortunate over-canvassed voters in Nob Hill?)

The State-wide Democratic Party Chair said something about maybe paying from party coffers for a random 2% district-wide recount (which Democratic Secretary of State Vigil-Giron *refused* to allow to happen Statewide as a fully funded independent audit for reasons she never explained) which might, what -- change the results? I doubt it now.

Ms. Madrid, thank you for holding out this long, but in the long run you rolled over like a little puppy -- just like Mr. Kerry did, and Mr. Gore behind him, citing the same bullshit reason: not wanting to be "divisive".

Your concession bodes about as well for this narrow Democratic Congress as Gore's ultimate concession (in the face of an extraconstitutional Supreme Court decision) bade for a Bush administration back in 2000. And look where we are now.

Fuck that! Elections are *supposed* to be competitive and hotly contested! And neither you nor Gore rolled over to get rubbed in the belly, you just rolled over to get your guts rolled out across the highway by a KBR Transport of empty trucks on its way to being kidnapped by insurgents/police forces/whoever at a phony checkpoint. Well done, indeed!

This shit ain't magnanimity, it's cowardice.

Being a political candidate for peace does not mean that you link arms with people in sackcloth and ashes around Ashley Pond Pond for a rousing round of "Kum-Ba-Yah" (though nothing keeps you from it, if you're not afraid of detractors). It means you fight like dogs in the electoral sphere to end a war you *know* to be illegal, unjust, and immoral, while fighting to hold those responsible for it accountable under US *and* International Law.

Shame on you, Ms. Madrid, for falling for the lie that being for peace means you are weak. You do us all a grave disservice by playing the stereotype. Shame on myself for having voted for you when I *knew* better within my heart of hearts.

So, incidentally, does Representative Wilson fail us. But at least she never *lied* about what she was doing. She just never responds to her constituents.

Too bad money means more to both Rebpublicans *and* Democrats than the integrity of our elections.