The mess in Texas

Democracy in action, deep in the heart of Texas:

Two Republicans defeated Nov. 2 will submit paperwork today asking the GOP-majority Texas House to throw out official vote tallies and name them winners of their respective races or force new elections, advisers predicted Tuesday.

A third defeated candidate, Republican Rep. Ken Mercer of San Antonio, will decide by today whether to join the others in contesting his 498-vote loss to Democratic challenger David Leibowitz, his campaign manager said.

A recount already has been scheduled for next week for Rep. Talmadge Heflin, R-Houston, who fell by 32 votes to Houston businessman Hubert Vo.

Heflin, scheduled to hold a news conference today, has identified "hundreds" of instances in which ineligible voters cast ballots, but he will withdraw his contest from House consideration if he prevails over Vo in the recount, spokesman Craig Murphy said.

So in Texas, if you lose an election, you can ask the House of Representatives to name you the winner anyway and subvert the will of the people? And the men doing this think that is a perfectly good idea, to paint Republicans in Texas as sore losers who dislike Democracy?

I'm all for vote recounts. Justified investigations seem okay as well. But to ask a partisan legislature to decide the fate of an election seems like bad form. Burnt Orange has more:

It's true, you can't take the politics out of politics, but asking for election challenges is a sure fire way to make the 79th Texas Legislature just as polarized and miserable as the 78th. And even if they do win, they get... a new election. When George W. Bush is not on the ballot. In districts where they apparently already lost and which are (in sum) getting more Democratic (particularly District 149). Surely they just want to hand us a big issue to lash them with for two more years?

And remember, control of the House is not resting on these challenges. It's the difference between the Republicans having a lot of power in Austin and having... a lot of power in Austin. The law of diminishing marginal returns applies in politics.

Finally, if the Republicans want to indulge in silly, paranoid theories about election thievery, then why don't they just go ahead and challenge Ohio or Florida's electoral votes when the new Congress meets in January? We're cool with that. After all, if the election was corrupt in Alief, it could be corrupt anywhere!