The Justice Department says it will investigate the Bush campaign’s hired goons who invaded the Miami-Dade County office building Nov. 22, pounding on windows and kicking the door of a room where election officials were recounting ballots in the presidential election.

"Fraud! The fix is in," the thugs screamed.

They chased Democratic Party official Joe Geller down a hallway, shouting that he had "stolen" a ballot. About an hour later, shaken members of the canvassing board voted unanimously to terminate the count, which was almost certain to provide enough additional votes to make Al Gore the winner.

This a chilling preview of what we can expect if the CIA-esque coup d’état succeeds and George W. Bush is installed in the Oval Office. The stormtroopers were recruited by House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, a GOP thug himself. Their airfare, hotel and expenses were paid for by the Bush campaign.

In some ways these thugs give meaning to the old saying, "The more things change, the more they stay the same." They bring back memories of Donald Segretti, Richard Nixon’s dirty trickster. They recall Ronald Reagan’s favorite Marine, Lt. Col. Oliver North, who hired an ad agency to run scurrilous political ads targeting members of Congress who voted against contra aid.

Former CIA Director "Poppy" Bush is the past master of fascist-like dirty tricks who hired Lee Atwater, the man behind the racist "Willie Horton" television ad of the 1988 election.

Bush’s behavior, and the behavior of his campaign since Nov. 7, is an ominous foreshadowing of the extremist, bully-boy tactics we can expect if Bush seizes the White House. The ultra-right forces – kept out of sight during the campaign – are already coming out from under their rocks.

"Dubya" promised to end partisan bickering and said he would get things done. But keeping him out of the White House is the first line of defense against the modern-day brownshirts operating out of DeLay’s Capitol Hill office. They are cut from the same cloth as the scabs and goons who attack picketlines and bust strikes. They should be arrested and tried for their criminal activities.