Spilled milk or fried egg?

The Air America people have got me thinking. There's bit quite a bit of discussion on the radio about whether or not the election this year was "stolen." They bring out all kinds of just this side of conspiracy theroys that occasionally sound like they would make more sense if I were hearing them on Art Bell. Things about how electronic machines tallied votes for Bush even if you voted for Kerry, and how they did a "dry run" with a primary in Florida, and and and and...

(Art Bell had a radio show that talked about UFOs and all the like that you would see on X-Files. I just checked and there isn't an Art Bell anymore, although his show "Coast to Coast" is apparently still running with another host. Post for another day.)

Anyway the whole thing gets me thinking like this: if these people are right (big if), and if they are in some way able to prove it (bigger if), and if they are able to get some court to listen to them, is the election spilled milk or is it a fried egg?

I had this bio teacher in high school, Mr. Boyum, who used to drill it into our heads. It was about denatured proteins (which he was also telling us is not the same as "killing" them, they were unfolded, there was nothing to kill in the first place) and how once they were unfolded you could not put them back.

So if the election is spilled milk, I guess if there is genuine demonstrable fraud with intent, then maybe we can soak it up and put things right. But do you remember the last time? The rush to get through it?

I never understood during the whole Bush/Gore thing what the hurry was. I mean I get that there are constitutionally mandated deadlines and that they are likely somewhat tamperproof to discourage fraud, but should the system be so bulletproof that it cannot react to legitimate problems? We should never get to the point in our process where we say "well, there just won't be time to count the ballots." If we're not going to count the ballots, why did we bother to vote?

My recollection of the last time is that the people involved don't have the gumption to do what is necessary in order to make sure we count all the votes. Actually, I think it is likely that the real problem is that releasing the deadlines would take the out in the open action of the congress, an elected body, and that's a fairly rigorous position for anyone in an elected body to take. And, aside from that, in both cases now expediting the process has favored the party that controls the legislative agenda. Why on Earth would they want to extend the process if by truncating it they can simply declare their man the winner?

So, even if the investigators really do find the smoking gun that proves that there was an orchestrated, and successful, effort to steal the office of the President, I think they are likely to find that it is more of a fried egg than a puddle of spilled milk. Don't get me wrong, its not like I don't want to know the truth about what did or did not happen. I just think that knowing probably won't change anything in the end.