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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: greenspirit who wrote (87070)	11/25/2000 12:43:07 AM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Bush Recount Appeal Friday, November 24, 2000 By John P. Martin The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider whether the Florida Supreme Court overstepped its bounds when it halted the certification of presidential votes and ordered manual recounts. Wilfredo Lee/AP Nov. 23: Broward County canvassing board members examine disputed ballots at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The decision to hear the appeal, one of two filed by George W. Bush, could extend his disputed presidential race with Al Gore for at least another week. The court scheduled oral arguments in the case for next Friday, Dec. 1. Late Friday, Reuters also reported that Florida's largely Republican state legislature said it planned to join with the Bush campaign in its arguments before the Supreme Court. The appeal the justices decided not to hear came in reaction to a ruling by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which rejected an independent suit in which voters alleged a violation of their due process rights under the Fourth Amendment and insisted that the manual recounting process be halted altogether. The Bush camp welcomed the news that the high court had accept one of the two appeals, while Gore attorneys tried to downplay the decision. "We are pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review the decision of the Florida Supreme Court," Bush attorney Ben Ginsberg said in a two-sentence statement. "The Court will review whether it is fair to change the rules in the middle of the game." The news came as election officials in Broward and Palm Beach counties resumed inspecting hundreds of controversial "dimpled" ballots, and as Gore supporters charged Republicans had been trying to intimidate the vote counters. At the same time, Bush's lawyers asked a Florida Circuit Court judge to force about a dozen counties to reconsider up to 800 overseas military ballots that were disqualified, most for questionable postmarks. Republicans hope that those ballots favor their nominee and help the Texas governor pad the official 930-vote lead he held before recounts began — which has gradually shrunken after unofficial results have come in of manual recounts in Palm Beach and Broward counties. A decision in that hearing could come as early as Saturday. State elections officials had planned to certify all the ballots — and declare the winner of the state's crucial electoral votes — some time after 5 p.m. Sunday, the court-imposed deadline for filing amended returns. That certification is still likely to occur, because Bush did not ask the federal court to halt it. But Gore's campaign has promised to contest the election results anyway, because they won't include revised returns from Miami-Dade County, which abandoned its recount Wednesday. And the Supreme Court appeal has the potential to drastically alter the outcome. Bush had appealed on two fronts — arguing the Florida Supreme Court ignored federal law by effectively rewriting the election code after the vote, and that the selective recounts were unconstitutional because they disenfranchised voters whose votes weren't reviewed. The court, in its two-graph statement, accepted the first petition but denied the second. It ordered all sides to submit briefs on the case by Tuesday and said it would allow 90 minutes for oral argument. The vice president's lawyers had argued there was no basis for the highest court to consider the case because it involved interpretation of state law. Gore's chief attorney, David Boies, spoke after the decision. "This is obviously an important issue," Boies told Fox News. "It's the kind of case that the Supreme Court should resolve." But he said he was confident the justices would resolve it in Gore's favor. Democrats Allege Mob Rule in Miami Boies also was among the Democratic supporters complaining Friday about news reports that said Republicans launched an orchestrated campaign to disrupt the recounts and that their protests helped persuade Miami-Dade to abandon its recount. ABC News reported Friday that the demonstrators' disruption of the vote-recount process had influenced one Miami-Dade election supervisor — David Leahy — to vote to end the hand recount. ABC News also alleged that the demonstrations were organized by the Republican Party, and run out of a headquarters in a motor home in Miami by 75 party operatives — who reportedly moved north to Broward County after Miami-Dade voted to end its recount. Eight Democratic members of Congress released a letter in which they called for an investigation into the protest and protesters from the Justice Department. After allegedly fouling the Miami-Dade hand recount process, ABC News reported that the mysterious motor home rolled up in front of the Broward County courthouse at 8 a.m. this morning. Supposedly honking and shouting, the network said some 100 protestors poured out of it for the new rally, many of which reporters claimed to recognize as familiar faces from Miami. Meanwhile, although suspicious conspiracy theories abound, events have heated up in Broward County without a doubt. The Democratic Party in the county said someone threw a brick through a window at its party headquarters in Plantation last night, although no one was hurt, party chairman Mitch Cesar said the brick carried the message: "We will not tolerate any illegal government." About 200 Republicans and 50 Democrats had to be separated by police tape and sheriff's deputies today in front of the courthouse where the ballots are being examined. Vice-presidential nominee Joseph Lieberman called the demonstrations "a disservice of our democracy" and urged them to stop. "These demonstrations were clearly designed to intimidate and to prevent a simple count of votes from going forward," he told reporters in Washington. "This election should not be decided on who can demonstrate the most anger in front of the television cameras," said U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine. Those demonstrations continued in Broward County on Friday, as Bush supporters tried to drown out Democrats giving television interviews with chants such as "Gore must concede! Gore must concede!" The Republicans also enlisted former U.S. Senator, and 1996 GOP presidential nominee, Bob Dole to rally the troops. Dole visited the recounts and declared them "flawed." "They're guessing," Dole said after observing the Broward recount. "This is vote casting, not vote counting up there." He said the country needs to empanel a "blue-ribbon commission" to examine the voting process and improve its flaws after this election is settled. The candidates themselves remained largely out of public sight after the holiday Friday, Gore in Washington and Bush in Texas. Bush's running mate, Dick Cheney, left a Washington, D.C. hospital Friday morning and said his minor heart attack wouldn't slow his routine or affect his viability as a candidate. "In terms of the kinds of activities I can engage in professionally, there are no restrictions," Cheney told reporters. He said that he and Bush have talked regularly about the Florida controversy — it's "what we usually talk about these days," he said — but the former Defense Secretary wouldn't blame the lingering election on his health problems. "I've been in much more stressful situations in my public career," he said. foxnews.com —The Associated Press contributed to this report