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Jewish World Review Dec. 4, 2000 / 7 Kislev, 5761

Ann Coulter

Ann Coulter
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It's past time for GOPers to quit being good at losing

http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- IT WON'T BE EASY for Republicans to lose this one. By sheer dint of hard work, they're still trying to pull it off. Republicans are good at losing. Stick with what you're good at. Among a slew of others, John O'Sullivan, an editor-at-large of National Review, has counseled losing, noting that it could be a "blessing in disguise" in light of the fact that the economy is likely to tank during the next president's term.

I'm not convinced you ever really hit pay dirt by losing, but I am positive it's not a good idea right now. It's bad enough for Americans to have witnessed a known lawbreaker sitting in the Oval Office.

Criminal methods -- perjury, obstruction of justice, witness tampering, using the instruments of federal government to intimidate one's enemies -- all this has been shown to succeed. On the heels of that, it really cannot be good for the country to watch a presidential election being openly stolen by the horny hick's assistant.

Al Gore's smarmy claim that he is dragging the country through this nightmare out of principle is like nothing so much as President Clinton's claim that he fought impeachment to vindicate the Constitution. Thank you, Monica, for helping me defend the Constitution. Gore is not doing this for the abstract principle of "consent of the governed," "land of the free," "home of the brave" or whatever his platitude of the day is.

He's not doing it to ensure that George W. Bush assumes power with legitimacy. Being president is legitimacy. President Clinton became president with less experience than George W., won a far smaller percentage of the sublime popular vote, and then he trashed the place when he got there. To be sure, his presidency was not without its bumps, but he's still there, and still being reported on as if he's legitimate.

Somehow the media manage to report on Clinton's jaunts abroad and state dinners without incessant reminders that he was the first elected president ever impeached, the first president whose DNA had to be subpoenaed for a criminal investigation, the first president laughed at by a grand jury, and so on.

It really isn't going to hurt Bush to have some guy out there going around claiming he's president.

Thus far, George W. Bush has won: the election, the recount, the manual recount conducted in Democratic counties within the statutory seven-day deadline, the manual recount in Democratic counties conducted unlawfully beyond the statutory deadline, and the absentee ballots even with the Democrats laboring feverishly to exclude ballots from men risking their lives to defend the country.

Even Gore's adjunct staff in the mainstream media know Bush has won. They express their confidence in a Bush presidency by incessantly harping about the questionable legitimacy of the next president, "whoever that may be."

Clearly, this is no time for Republicans to think they smell victory.

To be sure, Gore will not stop suing until about the time George Bush is inaugurated ... to his second term. But it's hard to come up with a scenario under which Gore actually does steal the election that so many Republicans are champing at the bit to concede to him.

As luck would have it, the Constitution is loaded up with little devices to stave off corruption and tyranny. (And Bill Clinton and Al Gore have given the old parchment a workout like never before!) The 12th Amendment provides a pretty good bulwark to Gore's current shenanigans.

The problem with Gore's pitiful litigation strategy is that the 12th Amendment grants authority to the state legislatures to appoint presidential electors -- not, you will note, any kangaroo court Gore can get to sober up long enough to declare him president.

If Gore is still pursuing one of his ham-handed attempts to find some way of recounting the votes in Florida so that he finally wins, the Florida Legislature has authority under the Constitution to step in and appoint electors themselves.

In light of the fact that George Bush has already won five vote counts in Florida and that Al Gore is the only person in the universe who thinks this makes him the winner, it's a fair guess that the Florida Legislature will be appointing the Bush electors.

Unless the Florida legislators are cowed out of their constitutional duty by the threat of yet more Larry Flynt investigations, Gore won't be able to block Florida's electors by bringing lawsuits and whining on TV. (They might recall that Larry Flynt's vaunted investigation couldn't even turn up the tidbit about Newt Gingrich having a torrid affair with a staffer during impeachment.)

Try as they might, it's really hard to imagine a set of circumstances that would permit Republicans to practice being good losers this time.


JWR contributor Ann Coulter is the author of High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton. You may visit the Ann Coulter Fan Club by clicking here.


Up

11/30/00: Things only a Dem will say with a straight face
11/27/00: Certify the electors, then the judges
11/23/00: Kangaroo coup
11/20/00: This is what the Electoral College is supposed to prevent
11/16/00: The liar next time
11/09/00: JUST GO!
11/06/00: Hail Mary past
11/02/00: As the nose grows: The scripture according to Gore
10/30/00: Clinton sure can pick 'em
10/26/00: Gore's 'Nam flashbacks
10/23/00: Courting George Orwell
10/20/00: The three faces of Al
10/17/00: Must Christian conservatives be fascists?
10/13/00: Oil good; Dems bad
10/10/00: Al Gore: Serial fibber
10/06/00: Sigh of the crook
10/03/00: So who's the 'dumb guy' now?
09/29/00: Don't do drug legalization
09/26/00: I'd burn down my neighbor's house
09/22/00: Democrats worship the money shot
09/19/00: Other film footage we'd like to see
09/15/00: Bush can name the **^%*
09/12/00: The Supreme Court ratchet
09/08/00: Our mistake -- keep polluting
09/05/00: Bubba protects and serves
09/01/00: AlGore's 'going out of business!' tax plan
08/29/00: Bush's compassionate conservatism
08/25/00: Space alien tells funny jokes in bathtub
08/22/00: Dems view world only in black and white, not in color
08/18/00: Another Damascus Road conversion
08/15/00: The viagra cotillion
08/11/00: The hand-wringing Hamlet from Hartford
08/07/00: The Democratic party's white face
08/04/00: Hillary's potty mouth
08/01/00: The hole in the story
07/28/00: Cheney's detractors can't get their story straight
07/25/00: AlGore: Elmer Blandry
07/21/00: The tyranny of non-objectivity
07/18/00: The state's religion
07/14/00: Reform it back
07/11/00: Keating for veep
07/07/00: Gore invented 'Clueless'
07/04/00: The stupidity litmus test
06/30/00: O.J. was 'proved innocent' too
06/27/00: The last guys 'proved innocent'
06/23/00: Serious Republican candidates don't get serious press
06/19/00: They weren't overzealous this time
06/16/00: Evolution of the strumpet
06/13/00: Actual journalistic malpractice
06/09/00: I did not have sexual
relations with that ... man!
06/06/00: IRS turns Bubba's screw
05/30/00: Too corrupt to be an Arkansas lawyer
05/26/00: Choose liberalism
05/24/00: Violence against coherence
05/22/00: Developmentally disabled Republicans
05/16/00: For womb the bell tolls
05/12/00: Asylum from Georgetown
05/10/00: The truth is out there, even for the clueless
05/08/00: Barbie is a liberal Democrat
05/02/00: Moving the goalpost
04/28/00: The bastardization of justice
04/25/00: How Monica Lewinsky saved the constitution
04/24/00: It's sunny today, so we need gun control
04/19/00: No shadow of a doubt -- liberal women are worthless
04/14/00: It takes a Communist dictator to raise a child
04/11/00: The verdict is in on Hillary
04/07/00: Vast Concoctions III
04/04/00: 'Horrifying' free speech in New York
03/31/00: Check-Off Box For Pimp Suits
03/28/00: All the news that fits -- we print!
03/24/00: Net losses all around
03/20/00: To protect, serve --- and be spat on
03/16/00: Thank Heaven for the consigliere
03/13/00: Vast concoctions II
03/09/00: The bluebloods voted against you
03/07/00: The Tower of Babble
03/03/00: Vast concoction
03/02/00: Hillary's sartorial lies
02/28/00: You have to break a few eggs to make a joke
02/22/00: I've seen enough killing to support abortion
02/18/00: A liberal lynching
02/15/00: McCain and the flag
02/11/00: The Shakedown Express
02/08/00: To mock a mockingbird
02/05/00: Summing up Campaign 2000: 'Oh, puh-leeze!'
02/01/00: A Confederacy of Dunces
01/28/00: Dollar Bill's racist smear
01/24/00: How high is your freedom quotient?
01/21/00: Numismadness
01/18/00: How dare you attack my wife!
01/14/00: The Gore Buggernaut
01/10/00: The paradox of discrimination law

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