To Michael Huffington: You Lost, Move On

What do you do if you spend $30,000.000 of your own money on a Senate race and lose? If you’re Michael Huffington, you whine. It has been about a month since election night, and Huffington has yet to concede defeat. His original excuse for his boorish behavior was that there were 700,000 absentee votes that had not been counted, so, behind by 123,000 votes, it was premature to call the race. When Dianne Feinstein’s lead stretched to more than 160,000, his excuse became alleged widespread voter fraud.

That argument was asserted in court already and rejected when the judge found no credible evidence of any fraud.

There is also an logic loop in Huffington’s argument that he lost because illegal immigrants came out to vote against Proposition 187 and also voted against him. A lot of good they did, given the vote on Proposition 187. These illegal immigrants who cost Huffington the election obviously split their ticket, since Gov. Wilson--a true friend of illegal immigrants--won.

If Huffington’s plan is to take this to the Senate, the outcome would be the same. The GOP may be feeling haughty; they have a majority. But they will not intervene on this one. Given the number by which Feinstein won, if the Senate were to seat Huffington, there would be civil war.

Huffington’s arguments will go nowhere. So why not let him go on with his quixotic nonsense and say, “So what?” To start with, he is calling into question our democratic process. His fundamental argument is that it is simple to breach the system and steal elections. If people truly believe him, they will inevitably question whether our electoral system works and wonder why they should participate at all.

Huffington said he would not concede until the absentees were counted and show that Feinstein had won. When he won the primary, he predicted, come November Feinstein would have to call him senator”. The absentees are counted, and Feinstein has won. It is time for Huffington to call her Senator.