Jim Hightower

At my age, I thought I'd seen pretty much everything – and I've been to the carny sideshow at the Texas State Fair twice.

But now comes a Houston-based, tea-party outfit calling itself True The Vote. It claims to be dedicated to sniffing out ineligible voters – in particular, your darker-skinned Democrat types. TTV claims that hordes of these undesirables are swarming America's polling places to vote illegally. Sadly, though, these self-appointed guardians of ballot integrity have not had much luck in sniffing out, you know, actual documented cases of such fraud.

But, whew, what's that smell? Why it's Bruce Fleming, a Republican running for county commissioner in Sugar Land, Texas, which happens to be the home of True The Vote's founder, Catherine Engelbrecht. Bruce turns out to be a blatant, serial violator of our nation's laws to protect – you got it! – voter integrity. In 2006, 2008 and 2010, Bruce voted in person in Sugar Land, and also by mail in Yardley, Pennsylvania, where he and his wife own a home. In 2010, she also voted in both Texas and Pennsylvania – a gross double-dipping felony.

So, while Ms, Englebrecht and her cadre of vote sniffers have been challenging the eligibility of voters all over America, she had a real fraud case right under her nose! While Bruce and spouse are said to have no formal role with True The Vote, he is an advocate of its witch-hunt for illegal Democratic voters. As for his own recidivist fraudulence, Fleming says: "The less said the better. Until we can determine the situation, I can't really comment."

Hey, Bruce – I think you just did comment by saying "no comment." Did I mention that Fleming was named the county's Republican "precinct chairman of the year" in 2010? Now that's a powerful comment on the GOP's real concern about voter fraud.

Hey, Bruce – I think you just did comment by saying "no comment." Did I mention that Fleming was named the county's Republican "precinct chairman of the year" in 2010? Now that's a powerful comment on the GOP's real concern about voter fraud.