Bucher pledges crackdown on voter fraud, "real and imagined'

How tough is Paul Bucher on voter fraud?

The Waukesha DA, and presumed frontrunner for the Republican nomination for state attorney general, has set the bar very high.

He won't stand for voter fraud -- real or imagined.

I am not making this up. Here's Bucher in an interview, posted on his own campaign website:

"Election fraud, real and imagined, needs to be dealt with swiftly and aggressively. No more talk. We need action on that front and we need it now! All these areas I have worked in and am familiar with. I am a problem solver, not a person who creates problems."

He's perfect for the job -- he not only wants to crack down on real and imagined fraud, buthe has experience with imagined fraud, too. "All those areas I have worked in and am familiar with."

Lord knows, there is barely enough real voter fraud around to keep a prosecutor busy. Roughly 3 million people voted in the presidential election in Wisconsin in 2004, and the cases of proven -- not imagined -- voter fraud are barely in double digits.

But if we're going to go after imagined voter fraud, there is no end in sight. Rick Graber over at the state Republican Party can probably find enough imagined fraud to keep the whole Dept. of Justice busy full-time.

Just this week Graber presented evidence -- well, actually there was no evidence presented, -- of some more possible fraud. As many as nine people may have voted in two states -- or maybe not. We don't know whether it's real or imagined -- but it makes no difference to Bucher. He will deal with it "swiftly and aggressively" regardless those fine distinctions.

Maybe Bucher needs some voter fraud bumper stickers:

"This is no time to be picky." "Fraud is fraud, even when it isn't." "Imaginary fraud today could be real fraud tomorrow." "Stop me before I vote again," or maybe just "Stop me before I vote," which would be more to the point.

When Bucher hears about voter fraud, real or imagined, it makes him wilder than Mark Chmura in a hot tub after the prom.

Thinking of breaking the law? With Bucher on the job, don't even imagine it.

Source: The Inside Scoop: An Inside Look at National, State and Local Politics. 3/20/05, Vol. 1 #16; Interview by Rick Sense.