Holy crap, campaign attack ads

[japangreg]

The voting machines were not "owned by Republicans" as someone humorously put it. A lobbyist for the company made a legal contribution to a Republican campaign. It was a guy who made decisions that approved Diebolds contract to install the machines. He had some stock in the company that he said was a mistake. He could be full of it. If so, the crime would not be election fraud.

Contributions from a lobbyist, eh?

WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is calling on President Bush to return more than $100,000 donated to his campaign by a major manufacturer of voting machines, saying the relationship could damage confidence in elections.

Edwards, a senator from North Carolina, criticized the contributions by Walden O'Dell, head of Diebold Election Systems in a speech prepared for delivery Saturday to Florida Democrats at their annual meeting in Lake Buena Vista...

...According to the New York Times, O'Dell wrote a letter to Republican contributors in August that said "I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

Emphasis mine.

Contributions that were so obviously in a conflict of interest with public trust that Diebold actually had to pass a rule saying that their top brass couldn't do it anymore.

But I'm sure that's what you meant - I mean, saying that a lobbyist gave money is the same thing, right? Isn't that just one of those things that everyone knows? Like Dems. like to talk about who they voted for to pollsters and the media is out to get Republicans?

He certainly doesn't sound like a Republican, either - I hear plenty of Democrats and Independants pledge votes to Republican candidates; especially when they run the company that counts them.