Actually, Dubya's last few needed votes in the Electoral College were awarded to him by Kathleen Harris, Florida's Secretary of State at the time, who was also his campaign manager in Florida and Jeb Bush, Dubya's brother, who certified that Dubya had won the election in Florida. All that the Supremes did was rule that this process was constitutional. It was all very partisan at the time, and I don't blame Democrats for being pissed off about it. How far apart were they? 537 votes?
If the Florida governor and secretary of state had been Democrats, it likely would have gone the other way. When the margin of error is that small, some subjectivity has to be involved, some judgment calls have to be made, that could have gone another way. Everybody involved in the process voted according to their politics, except for the trial judge in one county, who, I understand, is a lifelong Democrat, but voted in favor of Dubya on the hanging chads.
But that's politics. Grownups move on to the next battle, and children want a do-over. There are no do-overs in Presidential elections.
I watched every minute of this on TV and remember it quite well. The US Supreme Court really did break on partisan lines, but if the makeup of the court had been majority Democrat, that wouldn't have made the decision less partisan, just more acceptable to Democrats. Breyer's solution, to recount ALL the votes using objective standards, made a lot of sense except that there are no objective standards. Sending it back for a better recount wouldn't have hurt.
I hope they get rid of those damned machines. But for teeny-tiny pieces of paper jamming up the machines, we wouldn't have been in this mess. Dubya would have won, anyway, but the Democrats will never accept that. Stopping the process pissed everybody off unnecessarily.
I think what shocked most people is that they don't really understand politics, and up close and naked, it's not pretty. When you're far away, and all you see is balloons and marching bands and cheering crowds, it looks much prettier. |
