Mayor Buddy Dyer, Orlando, Florida

Who? You may recall a big flap about Republican operatives trying to prevent blacks from voting in Florida in the 2004 presidential election. Does that ring a bell? If not, Democratic operatives around the country, including Paul Krugman and Bob Herbert of the New York Times, claimed that the Bush administration was employing the FBI to intimidate blacks in Florida (and by proxy, around the country) from voting. This was evicenced by the investigation into some voting practices.

Well on Friday, Mayor Dyer was indicted and arrested, along with several members of his campaign over payments made by the campaing to collect votes. In fact, one of those indicted, Ezzie Thomas (a prominent African American campaign consultant) was paid just over $10,000 to collect approximately 250 ballots and ostensibly take them to a polling places. Not bad for a couple of days work, eh? In fact, he was used in many Democratic campaigns for the same purpose, including a Judge Alan Apte.

Why was he paid so much for so little? Well, Mr. Thomas has been accused by some of telling certain African American voters to vote for the Democrat on the ballot (a violation of federal law), and in some cases, filling out the ballots himself (also, not surprisingly, a violation of federal law). At the time, this was clear evicence of the Bush administration intimidating black voters from going to the polls. Now it seems a clear indication of people like Herbert and Krugman too far on the lunatic fringe. Demand a retractment!