How they're going to try and steal 2008

This is a story that should be getting more coverage.

Republicans in California are pushing a ballot initiative that would distribute the state's electoral votes according to the winner of each congressional district.

At the moment, California, the single biggest state with 55 electoral votes, grants them all to the statewide winner, as do 47 of the other 49 states. The winner, of course, is always a Democrat, which offsets the fact that the winner of a state like Texas is always a Republican.

This plan would give the 2008 Republican nominee as many electoral votes, potentially, as carrying a big state like Ohio. This would, essentially, guarantee that a Republican will be "elected" in 2008, regardless of who wins the popular vote.

Now, I should say here that I think this would be a perfectly good proposal if it were instituted nationwide. It would decrease the chances of a candidate who loses the popular vote becoming president, as happened in 2000 with unspeakably hideous results.

For that matter, I'd be all for abolishing electoral votes completely and just electing the president by popular vote.

But this is not a good-faith attempt to make the process more democratic. In fact, it's the exact opposite of that--it's something Republicans are proposing in an attempt to guarantee victory in an election which, on a level playing field, would be very, very bad for them.

I call on readers to make as much noise as they can about this, especially readers in California. This has to be stopped.