Howard Dean steps into the FL-13 fray

Yesterday, Democratic National Committee chairman (and - full disclosure - my political hero) Howard Dean called for a new election in Florida's 13th Congressional District, where Republican Vern Buchanan purportedly defeated Democrat Christine Jennings by an extremely slim margin.

Buchanan led Jennings by a few hundred votes on Election Day and in subsequent recounts. But Jennings is challenging the result because touch screen voting machines in Sarasota County recorded that more than 18,000 people, or 13 percent of all voters, did not vote for either candidate, a rate much higher than in other counties in the district.

Predictably, the Republicans are standing firm in their conviction that little concepts like democracy and truth shouldn't stand in the way of GOP hegemony:

"We feel that Christine Jennings is putting her own interests above those of the 13th District," Buchanan spokeswoman Sally Tibbetts said. "It's unfortunate."

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"I think there would be a huge pushback in terms of the American people," said Rep. Tom Feeney, an Orlando area Republican. "I think that the consequences of that would be severe for the Democratic leadership."

Dean accurately put the situation in perspective, though:

"This election is not valid. There are 18,000 people who may have voted, and we don't know what happened to their votes," Dean said. "You can bet that if the Republicans were 500 votes short they'd be calling for a new election, and they'd be right."

Word.

Stay tuned. This is not over by a long shot.