They are still complaining about the Ohio vote. Now it is Ohio ballots where Bush scored better on optical mark cards. Is there anything to this?

Carlo LoParo, spokesman for Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, defended the election results. For the challengers' accusations to be true, he said, officials in both parties would have had to conspire to throw the election.

"That's simply a ridiculous assertion," he said.

Voter fraud is nothing new so Ohio's system was designed to make it very difficult and to require the cooperation of lots of officials from the opposing side.

Give it up folks. You are just making it harder for any candidate to have legitimacy. The Republicans will remember this the next time a Democrat wins and cause the same fuss.

When it was announced that Condoleezza Rice was the nominee for Secretary of State, the left howled. They either made racist jokes or insisted that this was rewarding incompetence. That makes this paragraph from an analysis of Iraq by Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria really jump out.

Six months ago America was headed for disaster in Iraq, with Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani threatening to call for active Shia opposition. At this point, Iraq policy was taken out of the Pentagon and run out of the White House, under Condoleezza Rice and her associate Robert Blackwill. Then began the reversals. Washington finally asked the United Nations to step in and arrange a transition that would junk the U.S.-appointed (and highly unpopular) Governing Council. The new, Interim Government, which came into being in June, was chosen by the United Nations and blessed by Sistani. De-Baathification ended. Military operations became much more conscious of their political effects, beginning with a carefully executed one in Najaf. And while vowing that it didn't need more troops, the administration has slowly increased troop strength so that by January 2005 the force will be 30 percent larger than it was a year ago.

So any successes we are currently having in Iraq are because of Condi's direct intervention. Maybe Bush should reward a good job, possibly by making her Secretary of State.

I have felt for the last four years that too many Bush-haters react without thinking. No matter what he does it must be wrong, therefore it is wrong.

Along those lines, Zakaria also says what London's Guardian thinks of elections in Afghanistan.

Its op-ed page had a somewhat different interpretation. It carried a huge, lurid cartoon of Dick Cheney, surrounded by Bush, Rumsfeld and Karzai, all looking drunk or mad or both, and singing, "Ashghanistan! Ashghanistan! From Sea to Shining Sea!!!"

If something goes wrong it's Bush's fault. If it goes right then it didn't really matter, anyway.

Not that the Guardian respects democracy anyway. That's the paper that ran a headline asking how 59 million voters could be so stupid.

More on culture wars. It seems that Santa Claus represents red states and should be avoided by blue-staters. After pointing out how many Christmas movies have the message that it is important to believe, the writer moves on to this conclusion:

Unfortunately, “believing in things when common sense tells you not to” is now part of the Republican agenda as well. What to make of the fact that words used to describe Jesus and Santa are helping elect the President of the United States? I don’t know, but it can’t be good.

So what should a blue-stater do?

First, avoid Santa movies. That suit’s red for a reason.

Second, take heart that the most famous Christmas story of all, Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” is essentially a blue-state story. A cold-hearted, stingy bastard realizes, with the help of some spirits (or a guilty conscience and an undigested bit of beef), that, link by link, he’s forging chains in life that he’ll have to drag around throughout eternity. Its basic message is liberal: spreading wealth good; hoarding wealth, not so much. Plus it’s not hard — and kind of fun, actually — to imagine Vice-President Cheney, with his bald pate and perpetual scowl, as Ebenezer Scrooge. Or Jacob Marley? “In life, my spirit never rose beyond the limits of our money-changing holes! Now I am doomed to wander without rest or peace, incessant torture and REMORSE!” Yeah, Jacob Marley.

I don't know that a Christmas Carol is all that blue. For one thing, it is a "Christmas Carol", not a "Winter Holiday Carol".

One of the lessons that Scrooge learns is not to rely on poor houses and orphanages, state-run institutions for helping the poor. A good liberal is supposed to believe that bigger government is the solution to everything. In fact, miserly or generous, Scrooge remains a bad man since he is rich. The proper resolution would be for the government to confiscate Scrooge's riches and distribute them to the poor.

Then there is the matter of Scrooge's conversion itself. In the space of one night he goes from a morally bad man to a good one on the basis of a personal revelation. Isn't that what happened to George Bush?

Finally, for Democrats everywhere, I’d recommend those Christmas movies whose message is more cynical than simply putting aside common sense to have faith in Santa Claus. In “It’s a Wonderful Life,” George Bailey wishes he’d never been born; in “A Christmas Story,” Ralphie wishes for an official Red Ryder range-model air rifle; in “Home Alone,” Kevin wishes his family would just disappear. Each gets their wish. Each doesn’t like the results.

I've been avoiding "Home Alone" and the annoying kid for year so I will let that one pass. Capra was often pointing out the corruption in politics at a time when Democrats were solidly in charge so I would advise blue-staters to tread carefully there.

And he got it totally wrong with "A Christmas Story". True, Ralphie almost shot his eye out but the movie ends with him sleeping with his gun, the best gift he would ever receive, and dreaming about getting off spectacular shots. Sleeping with a gun? That's the height of red-statism.

Maybe the Blue States should stick with "A Nightmare Before Christmas" where the moral is "Stick to your own holiday."