Saturday, October 04, 2008

Musical Hats

It's appropriate that this is reported by Yahoo News:

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Sue Nace thought election volunteers were joking when they told her she would have to remove her T-shirt to vote in the presidential primary last spring. But it was no laughing matter to the poll workers-turned-fashion police, who said Nace's Obama shirt was inappropriate electioneering — and made her cover the writing before casting a ballot. Now, a political fight over what voters can wear to the polls is headed to court in Pennsylvania — with the Republican Party favoring a dress code and Democrats opposed. To the GOP, the lack of rules could open the door to all kinds of questionable displays — even, one Republican leader suggested, something as outlandish as a musical hat. To the Democrats, voters should be free to express themselves. They fear a dress code could scare away some new voters.
....
State Democratic Party Chairman T.J. Rooney said GOP support for the dress code is a partisan effort to scare away new voters. "To go (to the polls) and engage in an expression of democracy and then be accosted by the fashion police is a form of voter intimidation," he said. The state Republican Party says Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell's administration crafted a partisan memo that would open the door to abuses. "The first thing would be a button or a shirt, and maybe the next thing would be a musical hat," said GOP chairman Robert Gleason...


Obama once said that all of politics was the silly season. I see now what he meant.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

For a second there I thought it was an article from The Onion, but no its real. I didn't know there was an amendment giving the government the right to form a fashion-police.

Cerulean Bill said...

Well, one person's political statement is another's political intimidation. Basically, its each side spazzing out. A pox on both their houses. Whatever happened to assuming the best of people?

Told my wife that at the polling place where I will be judge, people can wear whatever they want, so long as it doesn't distract anyone else.