Derek--Excuse me, but you don't seem to understand what I'm saying. What SHOULD have happened (what would have happened had Bush accepted Gore's offer), would have been to have BOTH Bush and Gore go to the FL Legislature and ask them to write legislation enabling the manual recount to proceed in ALL of the counties, and let the chips fall where they may! How is "fair play," as you put it, violated by that?
Bush is going to win allright, but the anger in this country is going to last for a long time, and the respect that many people have for the Supreme Court is greatly diminished.
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First, it is not Bush or Gore's place to be rewriting rules. That's like lottery ticket purchasers conferring after a drawing and agreeing that the lottery commision should change the rules after the fact to increase the chances of altering the result of the drawing. This is NOT simply a matter of intransigence, this is a very serious matter of the foundational principle of fair play that underlies just and legitimate institutions. You do not arbitrarily alter the rules of fair play in mid game. Doing so creates environments like we are seeing in Florida now - chaos, uncertainty, and failing faith in the fairness and objectivity of institutions. ie, undermining the foundations of stable government. |
