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 he nation's quintessential
dirty trickster is helping to oversee the recount of ballots in Florida.
In fact, this guy once went so far over the line that he was suspended
by the California Democratic party for misconduct. However, since results
for some are more important than ethics, he was soon reinstated.
And now, just when you thought it was safe to count the ballots in Florida,
he's back.
He is California's Bob Mulholland, political adviser to the California
Democratic party. According to Rick Orlov, one of this state's most Highly
regarded political reporters, Mulholland now leads "a hardened team of
California political activists dispatched to Florida to help oversee the
recounting of ballots in four counties."
When George W. Bush's DUI was revealed, California Republicans recalled
the 1992 U.S. Senate race of Bruce Herschensohn. That's when Mulholland
dominated newspaper headlines for five days just before the election by
planting questions about Herschensohn's personal conduct. That vintage
Mulholland maneuver made it all but impossible for Herschensohn to stay
on-message during the campaign's crucial closing days. Instead, the Republican
was reduced to replying to unsubstantiated rumors and untrue charges circulated
by Mulholland, a master at manipulating the press. The damage among undecided
voters was devastating.
By the time Herschensohn had lost against the unimpressive Barbara Boxer,
it turned out that the Republican was indeed guilty of — what? Along
with his girlfriend and another couple, the four had attended a show at
a Hollywood strip club. It was quite a coup for Mulholland.
The Democrats follow a standard operating plan. They publicly disown what
Mulholland does, but they continue to keep him on the payroll.
Two years ago, at the height of the impeachment battle, Mulholland was
digging up personal dirt on Republican members of Congress who might oppose
the president. At that time, Mulholland said Republicans who have skeletons
in their closets should not be attacking the president's character, and
he pledged to unearth the skeletons. (Some might call this intimidation,
or even tampering with justice.) Both the Clinton White House and the
DNC predictably distanced themselves publicly from Mulholland, who was
investigating, for example, whether Republican lawmakers had ever committed
adultery.
Is Mulholland more than simply, as his detractors have termed him, "a
vicious attack dog"? Reporter Orlov noted that the hand-counting procedure
in the Florida counties is similar to the process used in Los Angeles
County, where workers sit at a table with the ballots from a precinct.
Each ballot is examined and then placed in a pile, such as for Bush or
Gore. It is reminiscent of 20 years ago, when, as a campaign strategist,
I successfully sought to preserve the electoral victory of candidate Bobbi
Fiedler over Congressman Jim Corman.
Local Democratic operatives tried to manipulate the chads to replace neutral
machine voting with partisan voter intent. Their hidden agenda, not even
approved by Corman, who stood in line to head Ways and Means: to make
the race sufficiently close so as to throw the outcome into the House
of Representatives.
Does Mulholland know something we don't?
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