Tekboy, do you think we're headed for a constitutional crisis?
depends on how you define crisis. all the outcomes from here on in suck, IMO, because given what we now know both candidates can make a legitimate case that they deserve the election--and thus can legitimately feel that the elevation of the other guy is illegitimate. So we'll either get a quick illegitimate outcome, or a protracted one. Here's my hunch (no more) about what happens:
1. The official recount in FL, including the absentee ballots, leaves Bush ahead but by an excruciatingly narrow margin.
2. The Bush camp claims victory, Florida's electors are empanelled by the Republicans and go off to vote in December along with the other states', and Bush wins in the electoral college.
3. Meanwhile, individual Democrats in FL contest the election in the courts on various grounds (including the legality of the PB ballots, the confusion of the PB voters, etc.). The Gore camp supports them, perhaps explicitly.
4. Eventually the cases get heard in the FL courts, where at some point along the way they get dismissed or rejected.
5. Higher courts, including the Supreme Court, refuse to overturn the verdict or even to hear challenges, on the grounds that this is ultimately a political rather than a legal matter.
6. Gore grumpily concedes some point along the way.
7. Bush comes into office in January, but a sizable number of people in the country consider his election illegitimate, and spend the next four years waiting for a retrial while trying to frustrate his every move (e.g., a replay of what happened with Clinton).
ctb/A@hopeI'mwrong.com |
