On Those 15 Vet Groups In Ohio

This is kind of an update on my post Saturday on the lie going around that the President of the United States wants to restrict military voting rights in Ohio.  It seems Mitt Romney has joined the FAILelujah Chorus, displaying the kind of principled idiocy I haven't seen since Emily Latella's op-ed's on Saturday Night Live.

I'm sure by now there are folks who are saying, "Well, if Obama isn't trying to restrict military voting, then why are there 15 vet groups petitioning the court against the lawsuit?"

All I can say, yet again, is read the motion.

[I]n the event this Court concludes that Ohio’s current statutory scheme is unconstitutional, Defendants reasonably can be expected to seek to minimize the resulting expense to the State, disruption to the electoral process, and additional burden on election workers, see Blackwell, 467 F.3d at 1008, such as by asking this Court to reduce or eliminate the additional days of early voting for military voters. Plaintiffs, in turn, intend to seek an expansion of the early voting period through Election Day for all voters, which may impose substantial financial and logistical burdens on the State.(Italics added)

Those fifteen groups are merely petitioning to intervene in the case because they feel a ruling seeking, as they note quite clearly in the italicized portion above, to expand early voting to all citizens, might result in Ohio removing the early voting privileges for all Ohio residents, military or civilian.  The groups are intervening only to ensure that doesn't happen.

The above linked story on Mitt Romney's attempt to make up down on this case includes the following tidbit:

On Friday, the Obama Campaign actually signed a brief to the court that backed the petition of those groups – welcoming them into the case, because the Obama campaign says it wants to ensure that military voters aren’t kept from early voting.

I do so hope Romney continues to insist that the sky is green and grass blue on this matter, because it will demonstrate just how beholden he has become to the crazy wing of the Republican Party.