Yes, I have seen the reference to McKay backing off. I can see the argument for meeting on December 12, but even that provides an ugly solution that is sure to lead to more litigation, and as you correctly point out, could also lead to voter hostility. Legislators shouldn't ever refuse to do the "right" thing because of fear of voter hostility, yet I am sure that meeting now is not the "right thing", and I think that depending on what happens between now and December 12th, it may not be the "right thing" even then. At this point I believe that the "right thing" on December 12th would be to appoint 23 Republican electors and 2 Democrats, thus giving us 269-269 in the Electoral College, throwing it into the House (and letting someone else take the blame. LOL) Incidentally that would give us Bush as President and a Democrat (Gore or Lieberman) as VP since the Senate would be split 50-50 with Gore casting the deciding vote. How can any solution be more fair than that? Not only that, but it would give us a government that should be stymied by gridlock with Republican control of the House and Presidency but Democrat control over the Senate and the VP. Since I think that in general the less government does, the better, this sounds great to me. <g>
As for the question of whether or not to demand statewide recounts if they are forced to count Palm Beach and Miami again, I am sure that there has been discussion of that in the Bush camp. You say that you are sure that the Bush strategist know what they are doing, and my answer is that they are aware of the risks and alternatives, but the proper choice may not be clear. There are risks to limiting the recount to Democratic counties, and there are risks and perhaps rewards that could come from adding in Republican counties. My guess is that they think they know what will happen if they are forced to count Palm Beach and Miami, and that they simply favor the known over the unknown. If they lose, though, there surely will be some second-guessing, and someone (Baker?) will be in big trouble.
As for the Seminole County case, I expect we will hear more about it and the similar case in Martin County this week. Perhaps as the facts come out I will change my mind, but at this point the proper solution seems to be to count the votes but punish the election officials and activists. After all, it was the election officials and activists that broke the law, not the voters.
Carl |
