One Last Thing About Fraud

The conservative Cheddarsphere is all exercised about this morning's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial (see Owen, for example) calling for the state Republican party to apologize to the people they publicly smeared when they claimed that nine people double voted, casting ballots in Milwaukee and either Chicago, Madison, or Minneapolis. They did it standing in front of an East-Side home--when the residents were out--and used the occasion to mark the third time they sent a voter-ID bill to be vetoed by J-Dizzle.

The complaints are that somehow the MJS editorial somehow mimics Democratic party talking points. Let's see: For months, the MJS says voter ID won't solve the problems, and today they repeat that. In the original story covering the big "fraud" announcement, you could hear the skepticism:

While the party did not release names or addresses, the city lists three voters at the house where the news conference took place: Stuart and Gayle Schenk and their son Joseph, who moved to Chicago last August.

Both Stuart and Gayle Schenk said Joseph did not vote in Milwaukee or request an absentee ballot here. Gayle Schenk said her son is in Chicago studying to join the Franciscan order of the Roman Catholic Church.

The GOP needed two minutes to make a phone call, and they could have avoided the awkward situation of accusing a brother-to-be of a felony. So the once-skeptical newspaper now asks for the courtesy of an apology. Moreso, the GOP chose a bad example to try to make the case for voter ID, as I noted at the time, and the MJS said so too, in a way that is completely consistent with their editorial policy since time immemorial. The editors are still being kind, because they have yet to nail GOP chair Rick Graber for his admission that voter ID is not a full solution.

So, three for three, the MJS is either holding consistent to old positions or making a common-sense call for an apology over a completely avoidable besmirching of a young man's character. That Joe Wineke also called for an apology (.pdf) is not evidence of a conspiracy; calling it so speaks only to the deafness of conservative bloggers to how out of touch their Republican party is.