Desperate idiots for Bush. Dogs for Kerry.

A dog votes with his leg
Originally uploaded by vegacura.

Via Atrios, Joshua Bearman comes across a truly feeble Republican effort to fool African-American voters to not vote for Kerry.

But the place [an early voting station in Fr. Lauderdale] was stamped with politics. Distributing the cold bottles of Zephyrhills were about dozen NAACP Voter Fund volunteers in yellow shirts. Others distributed folding chairs for people who wanted to sit in the line. An Election Protection corps in black uniforms passed out flyers printed with voting rights. A couple of Kerry/Edwards people handed out candy from plastic pumpkins. And then there was this other curious contingent, an obvious bunch of Republicans pretending to be from ACT UP.

"We're from San Francisco," one of them said. He was wearing Kerry/Edwards pins, and holding a big Kerry/Edwards campaign sign alongside a homemade one that said: SUPPORT GAY ADOPTION. "We just want everyone to know what we support."

There were four of them, two men and two women, all carrying signs with similar social wedge issues. One of them, wearing ratty boots and a denim shorts and vest matching suit with a leopard skin collar, walked up and down the line, yelling "Vote for Kerry -- support gay marriage!"

"What are a bunch of Republican staffers doing here on Sistrunk pretending to be gay?" I asked the one who seemed to be the ringleader.

"I know all about Polk street and the Castro," he said. "Stanford University. I'm from San Francisco, and I'm for gay marriage." He was wearing a yellow golf shirt, tucked into khaki chino shorts with a call phone clipped to his belt -- the Republican uniform. "Our candidate, John Kerry, supports gay marriage, gay adoption, everything gay."

The ruse, apparently, was supposed to target this church-going Democratic crowd by misrepresenting Kerry's politics. It was a little surprising at first; but then again, that's the only way Republicans can win: by misleading people.

Their poor taste gave the game away immediately, and they weren't fooling -- just insulting -- the people lined up for early voting.

Pretty despicable, given that the folks they were trying to fool are old enough to remember not being permitted to vote 40 years ago.

Though not as despicable as this.

You can smell the desperation.

Fortunately, the ever-reliable leading canine indicators show Kerry with a clear lead (thanks to alert reader Howard for the photo).