Where would liberal pundits like those at Salon be without the ‘Evil Genius’ of Karl Rove. In this article Garrett Epps, sounds like he spent a weekend with Arianna Huffington gathering up every liberal fantasy of so-called Republican voter wrangling and then vomited.

“I think of that dinner whenever I read about the widening scandal of the U.S. attorneys and the politicization of the Justice Department under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Gonzo is probably the most endangered man since William Tell’s son Walter. The pattern behind the scandal, however, transcends Gonzales’ fate or that of his underlings.

At least part of the U.S. attorneys plot seems to derive from the “election fraud” hoax that Republicans are trying to perpetrate in order to gain control of the country’s voter lists. So nailing this inept crew of thugs won’t be good enough. We need laws protecting the right to vote from the kind of phony, partisan prosecutors that Gonzales, Rove and Co. were trying to put in place, and from the punitive, restrictive voter-ID laws that are a prominent part of the far-right political agenda.

Republicans do cherish their little practical jokes — the leaflets in African-American neighborhoods warning that voters must pay outstanding traffic tickets before voting; the calls in Virginia in 2006 from the mythical “Virginia Election Commission” warning voters they would be arrested if they showed up at the polls. The best way to steal an election is the old-fashioned way: control who shows up. It’s widely known that Republicans do better when the turnout is lighter, whiter, older and richer; minorities, young people and the poor are easy game for hoaxes and intimidation.”

Notice that liberals bug out and call “Show me an ID and prove you have the right to vote” as “intimidation”. For instance, Virginia has long been the practicing ground for illegal - yes illegal - voting by felons. Telling them that they will be arrested if they show up is well, pretty damn nice if you ask me.

Nevertheless, the gist of this diatribe attempts to tell us that Rove and Republicans perpetrated a hoax on Democratic voter fraud to gain control of the electorate. Yet Epps, like other liberals suffer from denial of facts. Powerline in 2004 citing a study on democrat voter fraud in 2004, we see the evidence for Democrat voter fraud is alive and well.

“[A] careful review of the facts shows that in 2004, paid Democrat operatives were far more involved in voter intimidation and suppression efforts than their Republican counterparts. Examples include:

* Paid Democrat operatives charged with slashing tires of 25 Republican get-out-the-vote vans in Milwaukee on the morning of Election Day.

* Misleading telephone calls made by Democrat operatives targeting Republican voters in Ohio with the wrong date for the election and faulty polling place information.

* Intimidating and deceiving mailings and telephone calls paid for by the DNC threatening Republican volunteers in Florida with legal action.

* Union-coordinated intimidation and violence campaign targeting Republican campaign offices and volunteers resulting in a broken arm for a GOP volunteer in Florida.

Vote fraud and voter registration fraud were significant problems in at least a dozen states around the county. Vote fraud is a reality in America that occurred not only in large battleground states like Wisconsin but in places like Alabama and Kentucky. The record indicates that in 2004, voter registration fraud was mainly the work of so-called “nonpartisan” groups such as Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and NAACP National Voter Fund. Examples include:

* Joint task force in Wisconsin found “clear evidence of fraud in the Nov. 2 election in Milwaukee,” including more than 200 felon voters, more than 100 double voters and thousands more ballots cast than voters recorded as having voted in the city.

* NAACP National Voter Fund worker in Ohio paid crack cocaine in exchange for a large number of fraudulent voter registration cards in names of Dick Tracy, Mary Poppins and other fictional characters.

* Former ACORN worker said there was “a lot of fraud committed” by group in Florida, as ACORN workers submitted thousands of fraudulent registrations in a dozen states across the country, resulting in a statewide investigation of the group in Florida and multiple indictments and convictions of ACORN/Project Vote workers for voter registration fraud in several states.

There were also a case of clear fraud Capt Ed noted back in 2005 that occured in Wisconsin. The fact is that voter fraud was prevailant in 2004, especially in New Mexico where fired AG Iglesias worked, where I might add evidence exists that he didn’t persue it due to pressure from state Democrats concerned that it would anger the hispanic populations.

Not that any facts will convince the likes Epps or others who see that the attempt to unseat the AG to avoid coming prosecutions has failed.