Howard Dean: "If you can't win, Cheat"

I didn't think he'd come right out and say it, but there it was, in an e-mail from Dean and the Democratic National Committee:

Dear Charles,
If you can't win, cheat.

They even have a web site for their dirty tricks:
http://www.democrats.org/DirtyTricks

OK, actually Dean is claiming that the Republicans are "cheating". What he is talking about is the move by Republicans in California to change how California allocates it's electoral votes to be the same as Nebraska and Maine (two states who apparently the Democratic Party thinks are cheating?).

Now Dean and the Democratic Party are calling the assignment of electoral votes by district "cheating". But what about when Democrats attempted this same change in a Red state, Colorado?

Colorado Vote Reform Could Alter Election:

But if Amendment 36, as the proposal is known, passes Tuesday, Colorado would begin awarding its nine electoral votes on a proportional basis, according to the percentage of the popular vote each candidate receives.
...
Many of the biggest supporters of Amendment 36 have been Democrats, who began working to get the proposal on the ballot back when it looked as though their traditionally Republican state would again vote decisively for President Bush. Although the Colorado Democratic Party is officially neutral on the ballot proposition, political analysts believe the idea was to find a way to deprive Bush of all nine of Colorado's electoral votes and shift a few to Kerry.

Of course, as it began to look like Kerry might win the state, some democratic backers backed off, and in the end the Colorado plan failed.

Another good comparison of the hypocrisy of both parties in this matter involved California and Ohio, this time on the idea of non-partisan redistricting. The democrats pushed for it in Ohio, where Republicans had gerrymandered to their advantage, and opposed it in California, where it might help Republicans. Meanwhile, Republicans opposed it in Ohio but were pushing it in California.

Still, nobody had the audacity to support something in one state while calling it "cheating" in another state. Especially something that is already in effect in two states. But audacity and the Howard Dean-led Democratic Party are close companions.