The New York Times continues to help laying the groundwork for Democrat claims of a stolen election the day after a Bush victory is announced. The "editorial" is little more than a a replay of last month's piece, except for the removal of the embarrassing contradiction.

The Times' latest installment in its attempt to cast Republicans as anti-democracy includes as evidence of a vast, right-wing conspiracy to deny minorities the right to vote a single quote from an obscure Republican state legislator in Democrat-dominated Illinois.

It is rarely talked about publicly, but John Pappageorge, a Republican state legislator from Michigan, recently broke the taboo. He was quoted in The Detroit Free Press as saying, "If we do not suppress the Detroit vote, we're going to have a tough time in this election cycle." Detroit's population is more than 80 percent black.

Let's acknowledge that Mr. Pappageorge is an idiot and move on.

Does the Times want to earn back an ounce of credibility on this issue? Then maybe it could spend some of its very real editorial capital on decrying this sort of behavior -- directed at Republicans. Has the Times considered the possibility that drawing swastikas on Bush/Cheney signs and shooting up campaign offices may also be an attempt to stifle GOP voting?

The Times also continues to ignore the very real threat voter fraud is to a credible election. Why? Because many liberals are so insistent that every vote count even if the "voter" isn't a U.S. citizen, is a convicted felon, or deceased. Simple acts like providing a photo ID or a telephone bill are seen by many Democrats as "voter intimidation."

If the Times editorial writers' really want that Pulitzer so bad, then they might want to remove their hyper-partisan blinders.