With Friends Like These…
In theory, the editorial or commentary side of a news organization like a newspaper is to be separate from the news side. I say “in theory” because most folks would probably concede that both parts of The Des Moines Register look at the world through somewhat liberal lenses.
That’s what made the editorial which appeared in Saturday’s paper interesting. The headline was clear: “Rita Hart’s appeal to Congress doesn’t have a happy ending, especially after she passed over Iowa judges. She should concede.”
They went on: “This process needs an update, but neutral Iowan arbiters should have gotten a chance to resolve vote-counting problems over out-of-state partisans.”
Now some of this is self-serving on the Register’s part…they know that Hart’s people chose this path…taking their case to Nancy Pelosi as opposed to a panel of Iowa judges…because there’s no claim of fraud and little chance of winning. And even more, as we’ve noted here, skipping a non-partisan step in order to jump to a hyper-partisan option looks very bad. So in the event the Democrats in the House play super-hardball and seat Hart instead of Miller-Meeks, the Register gets what it really wants but also gets to act shocked and disappointed because they came out against it.
But in this respect, the paper is, I believe, accurately reflecting the views of most Iowans, even most of those who voted for Hart. Those same people calling for Donald Trump to concede in the wake of demonstrated fraud can hardly support Hart not conceding when there are no such shenanigans claimed in her race.
Now that one of the loudest mouthpieces in the state has weighed in, a voice that Democrats tend to listen to…it will be interesting to see if the editorial has influence…or really was just for show.
