Republican hooligan bashers in Florida work for DeLay. Source: online Wall Street Journal
Bush Campaign Pays Tab For Aides
From Capitol Hill Flown in for Rallies
By NICHOLAS KULISH and JIM VANDEHEI
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
MIAMI -- When outraged Republicans raised a ruckus outside the Miami-Dade County elections office last week, some protesters at the door weren't local citizens. They were Capitol Hill aides on all-expenses paid trips, courtesy of the Bush campaign.
Right up front on television images of the event last Wednesday were Thomas Pyle, an aide to GOP Rep. Tom DeLay, and Michael Murphy, who works for a DeLay fund-raising committee. Doug Heye from California Rep. Richard Pombo's office also was in the fray.
Shortly after the door-kicking, window-banging protest, the Miami-Dade canvassing board made a sharp U-turn, suspending a recount that was expected to help Vice President Al Gore chip away at Texas Gov. George W. Bush's lead. Mr. Gore's inability to secure these votes was a key to Mr. Bush's certification as the Florida winner Sunday night. Miami-Dade canvassing-board members, while denying that the crowd cowed them, decided they couldn't complete the count by Sunday's 5 p.m. deadline without using a room that the protesters complained limited public access.
Their work in Miami done, the Republicans headed to Broward County, where they joined a platoon that included about 20 other congressional staffers, who had watched the Miami-Dade commotion on CNN and wildly cheered their compatriots' televised antics. The protests grew in Fort Lauderdale, with hundreds of placard-wielding Republicans protesting the recount for several days.
Sunday, some of these same staffers were involved in a confrontation with Democrats, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, in West Palm Beach. Tensions heightened momentarily as Democratic volunteers squeezed through the mob of GOP protesters to gather their campaign signs, but cooler heads prevailed.
Behind the rowdy rallies in South Florida this past weekend was a well-organized effort by Republican operatives to entice supporters to South Florida. The protests drew angry denunciations from top Democrats, with several congressmen requesting a Justice Department inquiry. Vice-presidential candidate Joe Lieberman said the "orchestrated demonstrations ... were clearly designed to intimidate and to prevent a simple count of votes from going forward." |
