| I have a sick, sinking feeling. It's impeachment all over again. But this time it's about the results of a presidential election. Like President Clinton, Al Gore is willing to precipitate a constitutional crisis to hold on to power. The world's most successful method for transferring power is about to become another O.J. slow-speed car chase.
I don't care about taxes, I don't care about abortion, I don't care about affirmative action -- I just want to be rid of these people.
Al Gore's end game is to delay confirmation of the Florida vote for as long as possible -- just like his role-model of a boss would do in these circumstances. Under the 12th Amendment, the president is to be chosen by "a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed." If Gore can prevent Florida from appointing its electors by the Dec. 18, when the electors meet, Florida's electors will be excluded. Gore will win with 260 electoral votes.
Gore has a number of stratagems for throwing roadblocks in the way of Florida's appointing electors, including time-consuming legal challenges. Nostalgic Stalinists from Brooklyn, N.Y., now transplanted to Florida in their dotage, have already trotted out lawsuits demanding a second chance to vote because they were confused by the ballot.
It doesn't matter that these legal machinations are precisely as meritorious as President's Clinton's "Secret Service privilege" claim. If enough lawsuits are filed, maybe Gore will win the lottery on one. In any event, pointless litigation will buy him more time.
The law schools are chock-full of droning professors who will attest to the legitimacy of the Democrats' phony legal claims. Having rested up from the impeachment and O.J., they're ready to tackle a presidential election. They've even dusted off the old impeachment catchphrases, condescendingly instructing the public not to make a "rush to judgment" and to "take a deep breath."
As with impeachment, the spin is having its ineluctable effect: We've gone from a Bush win -- subject to a single state's recount -- to "the next president, whomever that may be." We've gone from "this will be resolved by 5 p.m. tomorrow night" to "this could take weeks."
We've gone from rolling our eyes at some hapless old people claiming they slipped and voted for the wrong guy to Fox News' Morton Kondracke saying of the ballot, "Well, yeah, sure now it looks easy." We've gone from scoffing at the idea of lawsuits determining the next leader of the free world to New York Times lawyer Floyd Abrams saying that lawsuits are "part of the process."
Perhaps strangest of all, the networks and Democrats have taken the Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times" and have begun referring to the curse as merely a "saying," a "proverb" -- even a "blessing"! Continued... |