I would like to direct your attention to a nice posting at TAPPED.

I think this is important stuff. But I also think that it's important for Democrats to do a LOT more than what Perlstein recommends here. They need to really put their minds to this:: assemble a blue-ribbon committee of the left's best strategists and law enforcement-type people, advertising folks, etc., and really come up with a RESPONSE that will blow the Republicans out of the water next election when they try to pull this flim-flam.

It should start with a MULTI-YEAR educational campaign. For example, every single minority voter in the United States -- every last one! -- ought to be reached several times, not just once, with information about these sleazy Republican tricks. Every black church, for example, should be given educational materials for the preacher to relay to the faithful (you don't need to name the Party even, nor talk about it in any partisan way. This is basic civics: voting and every citizen's right to do so). More openly partisan could be direct mailings, interviews in the minority press and radio, etc. They should repeatedly reach people with the messages during the two years prior to the election, and then again intensively in the month or two before the actual elections.

But of course, the problems go well beyond the minority community, and the solutions should go beyond that community as well. We should be doing a lot of broad targeting, based on likely states and districts as much as on particular sub-categories of voters. We may need our new Democratic majority in Congress to think about passing some tough laws that will enable law enforcement to ferret this stuff out and really throw the book at the people who engage in it. That might once in awhile catch up an imbecile Democrat, but mostly it'll catch scads of criminally-minded Republicans. After all, what Perlstein said about this kind of filth being woven right into the DNA of the Republican Party is absolutely true; and nothing is going to get it out except a LOT of them going to prison, and LOT of bad publicity for the stinkin' racketeering enterprise that IS their political party.

So I agree with him about the Democrats having ads up a week before the election. I think I already said as much in my last posting on this topic. But it should go far beyond what he suggests. Democrats should plan -- well in advance -- for MAJOR ad buys (radio and TV as well as print) in all the places where this sort of thing has happened a lot, and also in any really tight races that subsequently develop. (How do you stop the kind of degeneracy that came from Laura Ingraham? I don't know ... but if there is ANY way to legally punish her, e.g., lawsuits, boycotts, whatever, then Democrats ought to be doing it.)

Bottom line, just as I said a few days ago: we should never again be caught flat-footed like we've repeatedly been. The best defense is a good offense, and that's what we need: to slam them -- hard -- before they can once again dust off the dirty tricks and start screwing us once again.

The suppression techniques the Republicans use can only be effective when the electorate is effectively divided and, despite my earlier prediction and the result of the election, that is still pretty much the case in enough of the country that we can't be assured of our elections representing the true will of the people unless the cheating is dealt with. This should be a high priority for the Democratic Congress, but I'm also afraid that real action won't happen until we once again have control of the Executive and can insure fair enforcement of the laws. So, in the meantime, we really must take all the defensive actions we can and, as Roger says, also go on the offense with pre-emptive moves.