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

To: SecularBull who wrote (112061)	12/12/2000 12:25:52 PM
From: brutusdog	Respond to of 769670

Let's be honest here. The dispute over whether George W. Bush or Al Gore won Florida, and thus the Presidency, is not about great Constitutional issues. It's not about federalism, or the separation of powers between the courts and the legislatures, or even a correct reading of the Florida Election code. At this late stage of the game, it's about just one thing: who can best manipulate the levers of power to win this extraordinary post-election election. And once again, wrapped up in this naked power struggle is the U.S. Supreme Court -- the one institution most Americans had hoped could stay above the fray. The Nov. 7 election was, for all intents and purposes, a tie. In this country, we have no clear way to break ties in Presidential contests. We don't have runoffs, or revotes. We don't use penalty kicks, or a coin flip. And thankfully, we don't call out the army or have juntas take over television stations. As a result, the decision is going to be made by judges and legislators. And for the past six weeks, Bush and Gore have been locked in an extraordinary high-stakes battle for the support of the nation's political institutions. Gore is at a great disadvantage in this. He has the support of some local election officials and a few Florida judges. But Bush has hooks everywhere. He has Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, who certified his election two weeks ago and who just happened to be his state campaign co-chairman. He has his brother, the governor of Florida, who will certify a slate of Bush electors by the end of the week. He has both houses of the Florida legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives, all of which are under Republican control. And, it seems, he has five justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, all of whom were appointed to the court by either his daddy or by Ronald Reagan, his daddy's old boss. businessweek.com