We aren't finished yet with Trina Bachtel's death and Hillary Clinton's casual misrepresentation of it. Although the national media have been eager to move on, the Ohio press is taking their responsibility to get the truth seriously.

Today, the Columbus Dispatch's Jack Torry and Catherine Candinsky provide the most complete account yet of Bachtel's story.

They show just how comprehensively wrong Clinton was, but also how extraordinarily incurious the media has been about Clinton's false account.

They also remind us of a larger context that has been lost in reporting so far -- of the injustice that is done to Trina Bachtel and her family by distorting the circumstances of her death.

In Minnesota, candidates may file a petition with at least 1000 signatures instead of paying a $300 filing fee.  Gutknecht is the only Congressional candidate in Minnesota who filed a petition instead of paying the fee.  Many of the Gutknecht campaign's signatures were apparently gathered four months before the July 4 to July 18 filing period.  I surmise that they were gathered during the precinct caucuses and county conventions, which were held in early and late March, respectively.

With so much Republican sleaze on tap, I suppose it's easy to miss one more scandal.  But this one seems pretty big to me.  

Craig Berkman is the former chair of the Oregon GOP, and he ran for US Senate as a Republican, too.  He now stands accused of bilking more than $33 million dollars from investors in his venture-capital funds.  

An overwhelming majority of Portugal's citizens opposed the war in Iraq.  That was a big factor in the ruling coalition's loss, though they were astonishingly incompetent as well -- as I recall, schools across the country had to start weeks late this year because of a budgeting snafu.

It's amazing how little attention this is getting, even here.  If the conservative coalition had won, all of the mainstream conservative media would be trumpeting this as a vindication for Bush.

The Seattle Times already has a poll up about it on the page with their article.  No leads yes by a mere 52% to 48% right now.  

Let Rossi know that its time to get over it, concede, and move on.

What about last week's spin that the records had been destroyed?  A "clerical error."  

I suppose it's just very convenient that this came out on Friday afternoon, and on the Friday before the Democratic Convention besides.  That will bury the story for a week, at least.  By then, it will be "old news" -- not worth talking about.  Of course, this regime wouldn't let the Pentagon be corrupted by political considerations like that, now would they?

Here in Rochester, Minn. (population about 85,000), I was mildly surprised to see the film was going to show at all.  

In a three-way matchup, Kerry's lead is 48% to 44%, with Nader taking 3%.

It's interesting that the story about the poll in the Post only has the numbers for the three-way matchup, although they do mention the margin in a two-way matchup.  We certainly wouldn't want to print a number that shows Kerry comfortably over 50%, now would we?  Of course, there would never, ever be reason to suspect the Post of right-wing bias.

link

I really wonder which campaign sent the hecklers, though.  Seems typical of the campaign of a candidate with a five-letter, two syllable name.  I just want to know so I can send them a big thank you note.

Dean 35 (35)
Clark 21 (20)
Kerry 10 (11)
Lieberman 8 (8)
Gephardt 4 (5)
Edwards 3 (3)
Kucinich 2 (2)

Undecided 17 (16)

Dean 35 (35)
Clark 20 (18)
Kerry 11 (12)
Lieberman 8 (8)
Gephardt 5 (6)
Edwards 3 (3)
Kucinich 2 (2)

Undecided 16 (16)

Dean 39 (39)
Kerry 14 (14)
Clark 12 (12)
Gephardt 6 (6)
Lieberman 6 (6)
Edwards 3 (3)
Kucinich 2 (3)
Braun 0 (0)
Sharpton 0 (0)

Other 1 (1)
Undecided 17  (16)

1.  Iraqis will no longer fear the return of Saddam.  Wait, isn't this the main reason support will increase for Americans in Iraq?  Well, no.  The truth is, we're never going to have enthusiastic support from most Iraqis.  A lot of stateside pundits want to believe in a vast, silent majority of Iraqis who are thrilled to have us there.  In reality, we have had grudging support from a lot of Iraqis who have seen us as the lesser of two evils.  Now that they are no longer worried about the Saddam, many will no longer see much reason to tolerate an American occupation and administration.  We may, moreover, see not just a collapse of support for the American occupation of Iraq, but an explosion of sympathy and assistance for the Baathist resistance, because ordinary Iraqis will no longer fear that a Baathist victory would return Saddam to power.

2. Iraq's social and political factions have lost a common enemy.  On TV this morning you can see small but enthusiastic demonstrations of Kurds, Shiites, and Communists, among others.  Other than successes of the national soccer team, this is about the only thing they are likely celebrate together.  Up until now, the tensions between these groups have been partially obscured.  Now, Iraq's factions will increasingly focus on their clashing interests and demands.

3. Iraqis will be increasingly suspicious of our motives for staying on.  There is already a pretty common belief in Iraq that we are just there to grab oil.  Now that Saddam is in our hands, many Iraqis will find it increasingly hard to credit any other motive, and this will increase support for resistance to the occupation.

4.  Iraqi Baathist insurgents will be fighting more directly to advance their own ambitions.  Until now, any Baathist resistance leader had to know that success in driving out the Americans and returning the Baathists to power (not a likely scenario, but the one they were fighting for) would put Saddam back in charge.  They surely saw Saddam's return as a better deal than the American occupation, in which they are frozen out of power and privilege.  But now every Baathist rebel leader can believe that a better deal yet is available to him -- a Baathist restoration where he gets to be the one in charge.  Now Baathists rebels will believe they have good reason to press attacks with even more vigor and resolve.