Kos Advocates Manipulating Michigan's Republican Primary In Favor Of Romney

Somehow I doubt that we will see this in a Romney ad anytime soon. Kos is cynically gaming the unusual situation presented by this year's Michigan primary in order to interfere with the Republican nomination for President. McCain has a comfortable 9% lead in the polls in Michigan, and Romney is pulling out all the stops in that state. Michigan is a must win for Romney. The Democratic contest is uncontested with only Hillary Clinton on the ballot. Michigan's is an open primary in which voting is not limited by party affilliation. Thus, Democrats can, if they want, vote in the Republican Primary. And Kos is asking Michigan's Democrats to do precisely that. He is asking for all who read his blog and who know Democrats in Michigan to send them a form e-mail from his site, asking them to vote in their state's Republican primary and to vote for Romney. As Kos puts it:

. . . we want Romney in, because the more Republican candidates we have fighting it out, trashing each other with negative ads and spending tons of money, the better it is for us. We want Mitt to stay in the race, and to do that, we need him to win in Michigan.

Read the posting here. What Kos is actively seeking to accomplish is perfectly legal, but highly unethical - and spare me the arguments that Republicans have done this in other contests in Michigan. There is a lot more at stake in who we choose as President and none of those contests posed this unique set of facts.

What Kos is proposing is fraud in essence if not in fact. While there is no legal basis to challenge Kos - and indeed, doing so would only likely call attention to this idiot, there is one thing that we should demand. Kos is a political columnist for Newsweek. Might I suggest that this would be appropriate grounds to write to Newsweek and its advertisers about their continued employment of this deeply cynical person who is advocating manipulation of democracy in this most important of elections.