A satisfied media accepts the Husted Hustle

They had me going for a moment. The vigilant Ohio urban newspapers, I mean. When Secretary of State Jon Husted delivered his mandate that all voting hours should be uniform, who besides cynical pests like me  could challenge the political correctness of the Husted Hustle?

The Plain Dealer's editorial follow-up to his ruling concluded  that the decree was, um,  "acceptable".  After all, it said, "What Husted has ordered may not completely satisfy anyone, but  it at least  treats everyone equally." Of course.

That's after it opined that it would have been "preferable " if Husted had "included a week end or two" for early voters."  Shucks, he didn't.  And isn't that at the  heart of the problem?

Not fully dismayed, the PD's closing argument meekly ended: "Imperfect though it may be,  this solution will suffice."  Imperfect?

Down in Columbus, the Dispatch's editorial declared: "Vote for fairness".  The paper didn't waste time in sharing its satisfied view, beginning the editorial with...

"Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted has struck a fair compromise by standardizing  early-voting hours throughout the state." Whoopee! Compromise!  Who could complain?

Meantime, the Beacon Journal conceded that the ruling "has not pleased everyone and even recalled that in 2008 the early voting proceeded "smoothly."  However, it  said Husted has "leveled the field for early voting hours."

What the editorial writers  didn't level about was the ugly  source of this year's election scandal.   None of the papers bothered to mention  that the Republicans had set out early to suppress minority voters.  African-Americans,  in particular.  And they slyly confiscated a  system that worked four years ago and found an "acceptable" way to fix it to increase their party's chances against President Obama.    'Tis a fact that was buried in much of the latest round of editorial page coverage, where outrage was replaced with studious defenses of a political plot that can't be remedied by uniform voting hours.

But wait!

Over the week end Plunderbund, ThinkProgress and other sources reported more evidence that the GOP mission all along was to shrink the black vote.

That word came not from those awful libs  but from  Doug Preisse, the Franklin County Republican chairman and member of the board of elections.    In an email to the Dispatch, he conceded:

"I guess I really actually feel we shouldn't contort the voting process to accommodate the urban - read African-American - voter turnout machine.  Let's be fair and reasonable."

Lets.

This is the same perp who, according to the Dispatch, said claims of unfairness were "bullshit. Quote me."

In fairness,  I will.