The "voting machine fraud" routine is going to be a big factor in the next election. And good old Dean is helping lay the foundations, along with a wide spectrum of other leftists.

Discarding his old stump speech, slipping-in-the-polls Dean took an Oliver Stone-ish shot at the GOP hierarchy, telling New Hampshire voters about his fear that new high-tech voting machines will be programmed to steal ballots from Democrats.

The former Vermont governor warned the head of Diebold, which makes electronic voting machines, may rig his equipment so that ballots from Democratic voters are not counted.

"Whether you can program a chip or not is up for debate. I think you probably can and have a vote for Al Gore count as a vote for Pat Buchanan," said Dean, who says he'd like every electronic vote counter to leave a paper trail.

Some Democrats have charged that Diebold CEO Walden O'Dell is not to be trusted because he's been a Republican financial supporter.

Dean flew home to Vermont yesterday feeling sick and exhausted.

As we all know, no Democrat has ever legitimately lost an election on the issues. Either some form of fraud was involved, or the voters brainwashed, or something. It is impossible for any reasonable person to freely vote for a Republican. This fall, the favorite gimmick is going to be the voting machines.

Oddly, no one ever assumes that a voting machine can or will be hacked by a Democrat. Must be somehow related to them being unable to punch holes in cardboard properly.