Faux Patriot Games

Today is the runoff primary between the way-too-conservative Thad Cochran and the genuinely odious bagger Chris McDaniel. Several bagger groups sent “poll watchers,” to Mississippi after Cochran attempted to appeal to Democrats to “cross over” and vote in the Republican primary. This is legal in Mississippi as long as the individual hasn’t already voted in a primary.

And it’s also the case that in Mississippi, a “Democratic voter” is likely going to be African American.

Mississippi officials say they will be watching the polls, and that outside groups have no authority to appoint themselves “poll watchers.” The NAACP is sending poll watcher watchers. It’s a wonder nobody’s been killed. The day is not yet over, of course.

Speaking of voter fraud, a Wisconsin man has broken all records:

“During 2011 and 2012, the defendant, Robert Monroe, became especially focused upon political issues and causes, including especially the recall elections,” the complaint asserts in its introduction.

WisPolitics.com reported the investigation into Monroe’s multiple voting last week after Milwaukee County Judge J.D. Watts ordered the records related to a secret John Doe investigation be made public after the investigation was closed.

According to those records, Monroe was considered by investigators to be the most prolific multiple voter in memory. He was a supporter of Gov. Scott Walker and state Sen. Alberta Darling, both Republicans, and allegedly cast five ballots in the June 2012 election in which Walker survived a recall challenge.

According to the John Doe records, Monroe claimed to have a form of temporary amnesia and did not recall the election day events when confronted by investigators.

For more gotcha news, see also:

Early last year, Wall Street traders somehow found out that the Obama administration planned to make a policy change to Medicare before the news was even announced.

The flurry of stock trades in major health care companies that followed has since caught the eye of federal law enforcement as well as Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who has made investigating the matter one of his pet projects on the Senate Finance and Judiciary committees. In his search, Grassley has gone as far as to cast suspicion on the Obama administration as the source of the leak.

But in a twist, the Wall Street Journal reported last week that federal regulators and law enforcement officials have now focused their attention on a Republican health policy staffer in the House. A lawsuit filed on Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, first reported by the Journal, said investigators believe the staffer “may have been” the source of the leak. It also sought to force the staffer to turn over records to investigators, something he and the committee have reportedly refused to do despite being handed subpoenas.

Now that the investigation is looking at Republicans, it has suddenly become an example of government overreach and a violation of somebody’s free speech rights.

Update: The Mississippi race is being called for Cochran. Looks like African-American voters spared us all from having that odious McDaniel in the Senate.