Is it me or is Chris Gregoire pretty good lookin'? Oh, come on, it's not sexist if the media tells us that John Thune is attractive, too

Democrats have until 5 p.m. Friday to get the necessary funds to pay for a hand recount for the Washington governor's race, where 42 votes, after one machine recount, separate Chris Gregoire from Dino Rossi. John Kerry has helped those pushing for a recount get closer to that goal by donating $250,000 of unused funds (why those funds were unused, we can discuss sometime next April) to Gregoire for the recount effort. As we've mentioned before, there's a big difference in accuracy between a hand recount and a machine recount -- the fact is, machine recounts seem kinda absurd to us, since don't the machines then just not read or ignore many of the same ballots they did not read or ignore the first time around?

Yeah.

Anyway, go to Chris Gregoire's website.

First off, "Chris Gregoire's Transition team is now accepting applications." Good for her.

Second of all, to Gregoire's great credit, she explains why she's pushing for hand recounts across the state, and not just cherry-picking specific counties that are more likely to help her close that 42 vote gap. One of the biggest mistakes Al Gore made in 2000 was pushing for specific counties, rather than a statewide recount. The GOP might complain that Gregoire's statewide recount will cost more money and create more problems, but you better believe that if she were pushing for the less expensive particular counties recounts, that same GOP would be accusing her of cherry-picking.

Here is what she writes:

"I know it would be cheaper for the Party to do a limited hand count. And I know it would be possible to just count a few counties and put me in the lead.

"That doesn't work for the voters of our state. From the beginning this has been about getting all the votes counted so we can know for sure who won the governor's race.

"So, my request of the state Democratic Party is simple: count the entire state, or don't count at all. Counting every vote is the only right thing to do.

"Right now, the Governor-Elect's office sits empty in Olympia. The only way to fill it will be to have a statewide hand recount.

"In the meantime, both Senator Rossi and I are working on our transition and assembling an administration. Once the race is over, the winner will be able to take office with confidence. It may take a little while longer, but it's worth a few weeks to have four years of legitimacy."

Just out of curiosity, if a Washington state reader would mind emailing me, I'm curious -- Washington State is a state Kerry won pretty heavily. Gregoire was the state's popular Attorney General. Why was this race so close?