Analysis: Bush Urges Opponent to Stand Down
By David S. Broder
Washington Post Staff Writer
washingtonpost.com
Monday , November 27, 2000 ; Page A01
George W. Bush moved appreciably closer to winning the White House last night and immediately rattled the sensibilities of Washington's Democratic establishment by demanding he be treated as the president-elect.
Bush, who had refrained from claiming victory after drawing criticism for starting transition talks with his running mate, Richard B. Cheney, barely 48 hours after the original and achingly close Florida tallies were announced, made an even bolder assertion of authority last night just two hours after the official Florida canvass showed him ahead.
At the end of a talk couched in conciliatory language and emphasizing areas of bipartisan agreement on the national agenda, he bluntly said it was time for Vice President Gore to stand down and for the Clinton administration to meet with his representatives to prepare for the change of governments. A new Washington Post/ABC News poll suggested 60 percent of the public agrees.
The Republican nominee's formal certification as the winner of Florida's crucial electoral votes made the odds longer than ever against the vice president extracting a turnabout victory from his dogged efforts to keep recounting Florida ballots. Even two former Clinton White House counsels said his chances of prevailing are dim.
Given that reality, Republicans said Bush was merely being prudent in beginning to assemble a new government. "It's important that he [Bush] go ahead now to form an administration," said Pennsylvania's Republican Gov. Tom Ridge. "At least for the evening, and hopefully for good, we have a certified winner. He needs to be about his task."
But with more legal arguments pending before the U.S. Supreme Court and Florida judges, Democrats seized on Bush's call for office space to set up his presidential transition as an act of effrontery that would only stiffen Gore's resistance.
"This election is only going to end when a court of law says the vice president has lost," former Clinton White House chief of staff Leon D. Panetta said last night. "The Supreme Court hearing Friday will have a huge impact, and it would have been well for him [Bush] to acknowledge that, rather than act as if it were all over."
Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) fumed that Bush's comments showed "a fundamental lack of respect for the legal process." Thomas E. Mann, the senior analyst of the presidency and Congress at the Brookings Institution, said it was "doubly presumptuous" for Bush to urge Gore to drop out and to ask the Clinton administration for cooperation in preparing for his inauguration on Jan. 20.
Within moments of Bush's certification, Gore's running mate, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) told a television audience that he and the vice president had a solemn obligation to see that uncounted or dubious ballots be reexamined for the sake of "the integrity of our self-government."
For all the rhetoric from Democrats, Gore faces long odds: He must now win court rulings in both Florida and Washington favorable to his claim that additional ballots in several Democratic-leaning counties should be counted the way he wants them counted – and then win enough votes there to overturn Bush's margin. History offers him little reason for hope: No certified Florida election result has ever been overturned in the contest procedure Gore is about to launch.
And he may struggle not to exhaust the public's patience. A poll taken last night by The Washington Post and ABC News following Bush's certification found growing public support for Gore conceding the election. By a margin of 56 percent to 39 percent, they said they were confident the Florida votes have been counted accurately.
An almost identical percentage approved of the Supreme Court agreeing to intervene in the Florida dispute, but the sentiment was reversed when they were asked if the Florida legislature should take a hand in settling it.
Lloyd Cutler, the veteran Washington attorney who served as a counsel in the Clinton White House, called Gore's chances of winning the court battle "pretty dim," but said the legal struggle will probably go on for another two weeks – until the Dec. 12 deadline for naming Florida's 25 electors.
Abner Mikva, Cutler's successor in the counsel position and a former member of the House and federal appeals court judge, agreed that "it is not going to be easy" for Gore to prevail. "He has a very limited time before the political curtain comes down, but he has to get some kind of a final decision from the courts," he added.
Panetta said Gore "has an uphill battle, and the question is if he can continue to hold onto the patience of the American people." Former senator Paul Simon of Illinois, another Democrat, said, "Things have tipped even more in Bush's direction, but he doesn't have a lock on it."
A big task for Gore in the coming days will be to keep fellow Democrats in line. Yesterday, many prominent party figures said they supported Gore's continued efforts to gain the victory, but acknowledged that their nominee faces long odds.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) criticized the certification process as premature but conceded, "If you don't have an accurate count in the state, he [Gore] can't win. If you do, he can win. It really comes down to that."
"There is a way he can win this," said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Martin Frost (Texas). "Whether he can do that remains to be seen."
Leahy, Frost and other Democrats said they thought their fellow-partisans would back Gore at least until Friday, when the U.S. Supreme Court has set a hearing on a Bush lawsuit, in effect trying to roll back the Florida vote count to the 930-vote margin he enjoyed a week ago. Former secretary of state James A. Baker III, leading Bush's recount effort, said that suit would not be withdrawn as long as Gore's lawyers were contesting the Florida results.
The contest proceeding will begin today in a state court in Tallahassee, where Gore's lawyers will seek to force a hand-count of thousands of ballots in Miami-Dade County. And they will seek to have the Palm Beach County canvassing board, whose nearly complete hand-counts were not included in the certified total last night, go back and count "dimpled" but not perforated ballots, as was done in neighboring Broward County. The Broward hand-count netted Gore 567 votes and Gore strategists believe he can gain enough in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade to reverse Bush's victory.
Some Democrats were plainly dubious. "There's an enormous burden on Al Gore to establish this fight should go on," said Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.). "My personal view is that it is increasingly likely the public is going to want this election brought to a close."
Republicans by the score chorused that it was time for Gore to concede. "It's time for us to have finality so the new administration can get under way," said Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne (R). "We have had three major recounts and if there were any major discrepancies in the process, they would have surfaced by now. We have the same ballot in Idaho and our people are ready to accept the results."
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) also said Gore should give up his legal battle. "For the good of the country, I call upon the vice president to end his campaign and concede this election with the honor and dignity the American people expect," he said.
Staff writers Matthew Vita and Juliet Eilperin and polling director Richard Morin contributed to this story.
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