After George W. Bush's dodgy victory in the 2000 presidential election, many angry liberals accused the Republican party of coopting the political process and muzzling the media. They may have had a point. Paul Gigot of The Wall Street Journal, for example, famously praised the "bourgeois riot" in which violent protestors shut down a vote recount in Miami. The rioters, it was later revealed, were not in fact angry citizens. They were paid political operatives.

[The Wall Street Journal's David Wessel once confronted a White House aide who had said one thing on the record and the opposite off the record. "Why would I lie?" the aide allegedly replied. "Because that's what I'm supposed to do. Lying to the press doesn't prick anyone's conscience."]

[Many observers believe that Republicans have rigged Diebold vote-counting machines (whose anti-tampering functions were reportedly disabled). In several elections in 2002, Republican candidates won with exactly 18,181 votes (including three in Cormal County, Texas, alone).]