The Dearly Departed Vote In New Jersey?

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

New Jersey Republicans say an analysis of state voter rolls has turned up evidence of "widespread fraud,“ including nearly 5,000 people listed as voting, who were unfortunately, dead. GOP investigators found nearly 55,000 people registered in multiple counties, and nearly 4,400 who voted twice in 2004. What's more, 170,000 New Jersey residents were registered to vote in other states and 6,500 of those appear to have voted twice.

Republicans are threatening to sue Democratic Attorney General Peter Harvey to force him to clean up the problems. But Democrats didn't seem too concerned. A spokesman for New Jersey's Democratic Committee tells the Star-Ledger, "If the Republican Party conducted the investigation, it's safe to assume the facts and figures are wrong."

Mahmoud's Make of It

On his first trip to the United States for a gathering of world leaders at the United Nations, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had harsh words for the U.S. government, blasting the federal response to Hurricane Katrina and what he called "the attitude of the American government."

But while the Iranian leader blamed the Bush administration for security problems in Iraq he spoke approvingly of ousting the Iraqi dictator, saying that removing Saddam Hussein was "necessary." But he argued that task should have been left to the Iraqis themselves.

Law against Lying

State officials in Washington had a novel idea: pass a law banning political candidates from lying about their opponents. But last week an appeals court ruled that the "truth in campaigning" law violates the First Amendment right to free speech, adding that since the law still allowed candidates to lie about themselves, it failed to meet the state's claim that it promotes integrity and honesty in elections.

But Washington's Public Disclosure Commission, which would enforce the law, has voted to appeal the ruling, saying the court's decision "invites a free-for-all" for candidates to say whatever they want about whomever they want.

Collegiate Controversy

Students at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay are protesting the school's decision to remove an artwork from a campus exhibit that shows President Bush with a gun pointed at his head. Chancellor Bruce Shepard says university lawyers told him that since the exhibit is paid for with taxpayer dollars, "we get to decide what we show and what types of messages we want to send out." He added, "I don't want the reputation of UW-GB to represent advocacy of assassination."

— FOX News' Michael Levine contributed to this report