A Most Forgettable Election

WASHINGTON -- The closing days of a closely fought election rarely offer uplifting moments, but the 2014 season has been particularly dreary, nearly devoid of content and high on unedifying spectacle.

Perhaps the iconic moment came when former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist faced an empty lectern for seven minutes while his Republican opponent, incumbent Gov. Rick Scott, sulked over Crist's insistence that he have a cooling fan at his stand. Seriously, seven minutes. At which point Scott blinked and the debate that voters deserved could finally start.

But behavior that disrespects voters knows no partisan label. Consider Kentucky Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes' steadfast refusal to say whether she voted for President Obama.

Grimes, seeking to unseat Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, has obviously judged that the cost of ducking this reasonable question is less than the damage of offering an answer that would, presumably, align her with the president.

This strikes me as the wrong calculation: The voters who would be alienated by a straightforward answer are probably already lost to Grimes, but I can imagine wavering voters being turned off by her dodginess.

Even worse is Grimes' sanctimonious effort to wrap her evasiveness in patriotic bunting, the "sanctity of the ballot box" and the privacy protections for voters enshrined in the state Constitution.

"This is a matter of principle," Grimes said in a debate Monday. "I'm not going to compromise a constitutional right provided here in Kentucky in order to curry favor on one or the other side or for members of the media."

Spare me. Sure, the average citizen has every right to tell reporters to buzz off when asked how they cast their vote. But a politician whose job entails campaigning for politicians of her party? Who was an Obama delegate to the national convention? Who was all too happy to disclose the fact of her vote for Hillary Clinton during the 2008 Democratic primaries?

In the same category of behavior disrespectful to voters I'd put the refusal of Kansas Senate candidate Greg Orman to tell the people of his state which party he supports. Orman, hoping to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Roberts, has said he would caucus with whichever party turns out to hold the majority.

Indeed, Orman manages to out-Grimes Grimes: While she won't say who she voted for in private, he doesn't want to talk about who he'll vote with in public.

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