Winners and Losers
It’s not just who gets the most votes who makes a winner. Ask The Wooden One, whom most people think probably won Florida and thus the electoral majority, in addition to the plurality of the popular vote nationwide. Or ask Bush-Lite, when he discovers that The Great God Greenspan has just been lucky. Here are some more winners and losers.
Reuben Rodriquez wishes just one more friend, relative, or total stranger would have marked a ballot in his favor. Then he would have had 2,598 votes, instead of the 2,597 that tied him with Jose Lopez for a seat on the Otay Water District board. A 3-inch San Diego bicentennial commemorative coin was tossed into the air, and Lopez called tails. Yep, tails.
A county supe in San Bernardino who actually did win isn’t enjoying the full fruits of his victory. Jerry Eaves overcame what was described as "a withering challenge" to regain his seat. This, after having to deal with a corruption lawsuit filed by his peers. All is not won, however. He is now facing criminal charges of perjury and official misconduct.
Jan Leja also won her election on November 7th. The voters in her district decided to send the GOPer to represent them in the California Assembly, but alas, she was not sworn in with the other winners. By her own choice, sort of. The Attorney General agreed to reduce two felony perjury charges to misdemeanors if the Assemblywoman-elect would agree not to take her seat. Seems she falsified campaign contributions, reporting almost $150,000 more than she got, first to scare off a primary challenger, and then to show enough soliciting power to earn a sizeable contribution from her party. She said she took the AG-deal rather than put her family through an or-deal. Doncha just love it.
Not having money problems is Hillary Clinton, senator elect from The Empire State. That ever-loquacious paragon of humility is getting paid $8,000,000 for a book. Wonder if that offer would have been on the table if she had lost. Anyway, some quill-dipper will get paid $50-thousand for the right to write, and Hillary will pocket the rest. A warning to those who are already standing in line to see the finished product: don’t expect a lot of revelations, not for a measly eight mill. Probably more stiffupperlip hidden-tears type of courage. With no limits to her ambition, ya gotta think a spread in Playboy is next.
A winner without running is Colin Powell, soon to be the first black Secretary of State. Being called a war hero for his leadership in the Persian Gulf War — didn’t know there was room for another with Norman Schwarzkopf — Powell was not heroic in playing a role in the cover up of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam in 1969. I thought being a hero meant you faced danger with courage, and maybe, if there were time, intelligence. But when you over-match your opponent the way the "Allies" did Saddam, there is not a lot of opportunity -- or need -- for heroism.
A true hero, though now unfortunately dead, is Darwin Brown of Decatur, Georgia. He was the sheriff-elect who had won office promising to clean out the corruption. He was shot to death in his driveway Friday night in what authorities are terming an assassination. The 46-year-old Brown had told 38 department employees that they were gone after the first of the year.
Finally, this comment about voting. I was on AOL and it said there was a poll about the Supreme Court vote. I clicked in and then where it asked if I thought the Supremes did themselves ill, I clicked yes. But rather than registering my vote, I got a screen that said my computer wasn’t accepting cookies. And, it said, it wouldn’t accept my vote unless I accepted its cookie. Kinda sums it up, doesn’t it?
And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.