So this is what they REALLY think of the voters...

So, the 2004 Governor's race in the State of Washington was one of closest, most hotly contested in the history of....oh, politics. Ever. Came down to recount after recount, a lawsuit or twelve, and - eventually - 133 measly votes ultimately crowned Christine Gregoire the Governor. She "beat" (though that's still a source of contention among those grudge-holding types) a guy named Dino. Dino Rossi.

Groovy.

Well, Gregoire's 2004 nemesis Dino is back in the race. And, in a move that can only be called....um....shoot....what do we call something so... litigiously frivolous? Oh! Litigiously frivolous, yes, let's call it that. In a move that can only be called Litigiously Frivolous, Gregoire (or, fine, the State Democratic Party) filed suit demanding that Nemesis-Dino change his party designation on November's ballot to read "Republican" instead of "GOP" as he's currently designated.

The basis of their suit (if it can be called anything other than baseless in the first place):

Allowing Mr. Rossi to obscure his true party preference and affiliation directly violates the law, would mislead a substantial portion of the voting public and would breed cynicism and mistrust in our public institutions and, indeed, in our electoral process. This Court has the power and the duty to correct such threatened errors in the preparation and printing of the ballot and should exercise that power to protect the integrity of the electoral process.

Okey dokey. My favorite part (and the part that reveals the most about what the democratic party thinks of the greater "voting public") is that bit that suggests that a substantial portion of voters would be mislead by the GOP moniker.

Pardon?

So that suggests that a "substantial portion" of Washington State has never heard the republicans referred to as members of the GOP. That suggests that most voters go to the polls and look for the "R" or the "D" next to the name and check boxes accordingly.

Here's the problem with that logic:

If you're one of these "I always vote republican" box-checkers, then odds are you're perfectly familiar with what GOP means and wouldn't be unduly fooled by those 3 letters.

If you're one of those "democrat and democrat only" voters, then you've got nothing to worry about: vote for Gregoire, with the nice, clear DEMOCRAT designation next to her name.

No problem.

The problem I have is with the idea that our state democratic party seems to have no problem suing to pander to what they obviously feel is a completely stupid body politic. Hmmm....

I say, if Dino wants to try a new approach to his brand, go for it. And Governor Gregoire: try hitting the campaign trail and clearing up that confusion over what GOP means rather than wasting any of the next 40 days in court arguing about semantics.