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Politics : Why is Gore Trying to Steal the Presidency? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MasonS who wrote (687)	11/16/2000 6:03:34 PM
From: PROLIFE	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3887

The Bush campaign came out and said they WOULD NOT seek a recount in the close race in Iowa, as they do not want to drag this out. It is a very consistent statement by the GOP. So Daley's comment to that? "well then we won't recount Texas" He really is a sorry individual.

To: MasonS who wrote (687)	11/16/2000 6:12:06 PM
From: CRICKET	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3887

Check this out! Cricket SMEARING HIS WAY TO A WIN Wednesday,November 15,2000 MANY have noted the resemblance between the Gore camp's strategy in the post-election fracas and the Clinton White House's strategy during the Lewinsky fracas - the sowing of confusion, the use of dilatory tactics couched in the language of high moral dudgeon. But the Gore people lacked one key element. They needed a Kenneth Starr - a villain whose supposedly dastardly behavior made their own dubious conduct not only defensible, but necessary. They've got one now. Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris has become the new Kenneth Starr. It began with Gore's recount adviser, Warren Christopher, blasting Harris' order that all Florida counties report their vote counts by 5 p.m. yesterday as "arbitrary and capricious." That seemed a harsh stretch when he said it, since the 5 o'clock deadline is written into Florida law. It might be argued that she was interpreting the law too narrowly, given a mitigating clause in another section of the statute. But arbitrarily? Christopher's criticism opened the floodgates. Speaking on CNN in a tone one might almost call threatening, Gore crony Peter Knight said: "It would be just terrible for her" if Harris kept insisting on the 5 p.m. deadline. Gore spokesman Chris Lehane said she was "acting in the finest tradition of a Soviet commissar" - a use of language that itself would have done a Soviet commissar proud. Then the campaign's newspaper lapdogs began to regurgitate the spin in equally violent terms. The Boston Globe's Tom Oliphant referred to Harris' "astonishing abuse of authority" - an eerie echo of the sorts of charges thrown at Starr in 1998. And in a column in which he flatly called Harris a mugger who was "trying to steal the election for George W. Bush," Lars-Erik Nelson of the Daily News opined that "she should be allowed no discretionary role in decisions over the Florida vote." In fact, playing that role is Harris' obligation to the people who elected her. She was elected - elected, not appointed - by the people of Florida to the post with statutory responsibility for overseeing elections. They knew she was a Republican. What's more, despite the fact that the secretary of state is an elective office and therefore will be held by a partisan, Florida's Legislature assigned it the task of election certification. The argument that Harris could not be expected to enforce the law because she is a Republican and had worked for the Bush campaign - on the basis of no evidence whatsoever except her finding that the law bound Florida's counties to the 5 p.m. deadline - is near-slanderous. The most astounding slander of all came from the mouth of Gore lawyer David Boies. Yesterday, a state judge agreed with Harris that the law plainly states that county results had to come in at 5 p.m. - but disagreed with her contention that she had no discretion to certify later results. The judge said she had to consider "all appropriate facts and circumstances" in those matters. A few minutes later, Boies stood before a microphone and defamed Harris. He said that the court had "ruled the secretary of state has acted aribtrarily." He knew full well the court had said no such thing. If it had, it would not have ruled against those seeking to lift the 5 p.m. deadline. But this is total war, Clinton-style, and the battle plan demands a scapegoat. The Gore camp has manufactured one in the person of Katharine Harris. It is trying to intimidate her into acceding to the campaign's endless hand-count strategy, with the not-so-unspoken threat that if Bush wins, she will forever be known as the woman who stole the 2000 election. Charming. E-mail: podhoretz@nypost.com Back to Post Opinion Index \| Columnists Index \| Ho

To: MasonS who wrote (687)	11/16/2000 9:18:57 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 3887

Flowers Pour in for Embattled Florida Official TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Reuters) - Democrats may call Florida"s election chief a Republican political "hack" and a "commissar," but supporters are rushing to salute Katherine Harris with buckets of flowers for her role in the aftermath of the unresolved U.S. presidential election. Harris, the Florida secretary of state, is the Democrats" villain du jour for her actions on the presidential election results from Florida, including nixing the vote recounts from a handful of counties that might help Vice President Al Gore win the White House. But the way her supporters see it, the Florida election chief is helping ensure the presidency for Republican George W. Bush. State workers had so many flower bouquets to deliver to Harris" state Capitol office on Thursday that they could not fit them into an elevator. Delicate purple and white orchids and myriad multicolored arrangements filled several carts. "You should see the rest of them," one worker remarked. Harris, who co-chaired Bush"s presidential campaign in Florida, has been under fire from Democrats for several moves, including announcing on Wednesday that she would exclude some counties" hand counts of Florida ballots from the state totals for president from the Nov. 7 election. Gore"s campaign, which believes the hand counts could yield enough votes for the vice president to overtake Bush"s 300-vote lead in the state, took Harris to court on Thursday accusing her of abusing her discretion in making that decision. The state"s 25 electoral votes are crucial in deciding whether Gore or Bush moves into the White House on Jan. 20. abcnews.go.com