MR. GORE, END IT NOW
November 27, 2000
There is a line, not all that fine, between perseverance and stubbornness. Al
Gore is about to trip over that line and collapse with a thud. His determination
to keep fighting, even after Sunday night's formal declaration that George W.
Bush won the presidential race in Florida, presents the increasingly
unappealing portrait of a man who wants to be a winner at any cost.
Florida has certified that Bush carried the state. Election officials followed the
procedures and timetable dictated by the Florida Supreme Court. Florida has
delivered a final count more closely scrutinized than that of any other
state--ever.
Yet Gore won't accept that judgment. His lawyers now will file official
contests, or challenges, of the election results. Gore is certainly entitled to do
so. But as Gore knows, this is more serious business than his efforts since
Election Day to reverse Bush's lead. This is a world of witness testimony and
hard evidence. Gore also knows that the certification of Bush as the winner
diminishes Gore's chance of prevailing. Courts are reluctant to overturn
certified election results.
By dragging on, Gore guarantees the country more uncertainty--and more
gamesmanship. Democrats will continue trying to manufacture votes;
Republicans in Congress and the Florida Legislature will continue plotting
ways to deprive Gore of any Florida electors.
Perhaps the U.S. Supreme Court will convince Gore that it's over. The only
real issue facing the court right now is whether Bush won by the 930-vote
margin he had after the statewide recount, or the 537 votes by which he was
declared the winner Sunday night. The high court will hear arguments Friday
on whether the statewide recount should have been the official Florida
outcome.
Gore's efforts thus far have been neither effective nor persuasive. He lost the
vote election night, and he lost the subsequent machine recount mandated by
Florida law when a margin is so tight. When he couldn't win with votes, he
tried to win by invoking "the will of the people" and requesting hand recounts
in friendly counties. Will-of-the-people turns out to be code for embracing
technicalities when they serve his needs (as with his success in getting Broward
County to use a liberal rule for counting indentations as votes), but ridiculing
technicalities when they do not (as with his successful challenge to a Florida
law that requires hand recounts to be completed within seven days of an
election).
And yet these legal maneuvers didn't produce the votes he expected. Rather
than accept the failure of his strategy, he is launching, yes, more legal
maneuvers.
This mindset is destroying the goodwill Gore initially deserved. He could have
graciously called from the start for a second statewide recount by uniform
means--either by hand or by machine--but instead aimed only for hand
recounts in counties controlled by Democrats. He could have agreed that
counties should use their pre-existing rules to determine how questionable
ballots should be counted, but instead pushed for new rules, drawn on the fly,
on how to evaluate indented chads in ways that would be favorable to him. He
could have publicly demanded that legitimate military ballots lacking postmarks
be counted, but instead cynically dispatched his running mate to merely pay lip
service to that idea. In other words, if it's right but could hurt you, don't do it.
Gore's grasping for a victory that would be tainted and deeply divisive. It's
time for him to thank those who worked so hard for his candidacy, then
declare this election over.
chicagotribune.com |
