Don't lose all hope though, Aggie, because Paul Gigot found the "Chicago way" for Bush to win:
opinionjournal.com
POTOMAC WATCH
Chicago Rules: Two Can Play at That Game
This political war may have to be settled politically.
BY PAUL A. GIGOT
Friday, November 17, 2000 12:01 a.m. EST
"He pulls a knife on you, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way."
--Sean Connery to Kevin Costner (Eliot Ness) in "The Untouchables"
Al Gore isn't Al Capone, and election-theft isn't murder. But abetted by two old Cook County pols, William Daley and Jesse Jackson, Al Gore is now playing politics the Chicago way.
So George W. Bush has no choice but to follow Sean Connery and play by the same rules. Indeed, he has an obligation to do so. The alternative is to let Bill Clinton's vice president use Democratic vote recounters to discover enough dimpled chads to declare victory.
Now is not the time for above-it-all punditry. The moral-equivalence media--"they both deserve to lose"--are sly partisans anyway. By tarring both men equally, they conveniently absolve Mr. Gore for having started this fight by spinning unfortunate incompetence (the Democrat-designed butterfly ballot) as unfair "disenfranchisement."
Nor is it correct to say that the loser will somehow be the real winner. Letting Al Gore deconstruct the electoral process until he wins may be a "civics lesson," but it's a bad one. An abuse of power will continue until it fails. Democrats agreed to repeal their horrendous independent-counsel law only after it was turned on them. And Clarence Thomas's only consolation is that he sits on the Supreme Court.
This is now a political duel to the death, which is why both sides are using the Florida institutions they control to prevail. "Keep your eye on the final authority," advises an old Washington hand. So let's assess the dueling forces:
• Democratic manual vote-counters. If they are allowed to manufacture enough new votes, Mr. Gore wins. That's why Democrats put so much pressure on Broward County Judge Robert Lee this week to reverse his opposition to a manual recount. Perhaps they made an offer he couldn't refuse.
Miami-Dade County is also now reconsidering, no doubt under similar Gore persuasion. Broward had recounted 20,000 votes by yesterday morning, picking up only eight Gore votes. At that rate, Broward would only deliver 232 more Gore chads. So the veep's Chicago Boys must figure they need 650,000 more Dade ballots to overcome Mr. Bush's lead.
Bill Daley's dad was smarter: He squeezed out his huge 1960 Kennedy margins on election night. (That result led to a joke: JFK, Dean Rusk and Mayor Richard Daley are in a lifeboat with only enough food for one. They fight over who should eat, until Daley proposes a vote by secret ballot. Daley wins, eight to two.)
• Secretary of State Katherine Harris. This Republican is getting the Kathleen Willey treatment for having the guts to refuse manual recounts. Ms. Harris's use of discretion under Florida law is said to be partisan, but Democratic chad-inspectors divining "voter intent" are merely Solomonic public servants!
Mr. Gore knew the Harris decision was coming Wednesday night, which is why he jumped the TV queue to propose a statewide recount. He also knows that if Mr. Bush still leads by midnight Friday (after overseas ballots are counted), the Texan's victory will be certified, and the veep could suffer in public opinion. Which is why he's calling in . . .
• The Florida Supreme Court. Mr. Gore desperately wants these seven Democratic appointees to insist that every pregnant Democratic chad be counted. Bush lawyers say the judges would have to stretch to find that Ms. Harris has acted "arbitrarily and capriciously," a high judicial bar. Especially since her decision is supported on the state canvassing board by Democrat Bob Crawford.
But the Florida court hinted at its bent yesterday by deciding to allow manual recounts faster than Jesse Jackson runs to a TV camera. Maybe these judges will show judicial restraint, but don't count on it.
Then collars really get tight. If Ms. Harris concedes and counts pregnant chads, Mr. Gore wins. But if Ms. Harris insists that her already certified count is final, Florida would have a separation-of-powers standoff. The Bush team would then have to decide whether to drop the Big One.
• The Florida legislature. My legal sources say that when a state's presidential vote is in doubt, federal law (U.S. Code Title 3, Sec. 2) gives a state legislature the discretion to appoint electors. Republicans dominate the Florida assembly, 77-43, and the state senate, 25-15. They could assert that when the executive branch and courts disagree, or when there are two different vote counts, the legislature gets the final say. Mr. Bush would get the electors.
This would take political nerve, because Democrats would shout that the GOP is defying the law. But Democratic judges who overreach their power are no less political than elected Republicans who assert theirs. The only other alternative is to appeal to . . .
• The U.S. Supreme Court. This would be a final authority and guarantee presidential legitimacy. But it isn't clear the court would even take the case. A Bush appeal (like its current appeal to the 11th Circuit to stop manual recounts) would be based in part on equal protection grounds that allow federal intervention in state elections. But that argument would be made to a court that includes conservatives who prefer limiting federal power over states.
This political war may yet have to be settled politically. We know Mr. Gore will do anything to win. We are still learning about Mr. Bush. What ironic but satisfying justice it would be if the candidate who tried to prosper by Chicago rules was defeated by them.
Mr. Gigot is a member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board. His column appears Fridays in the Journal and on OpinionJournal.com. |
