Clicking on banner ads enables JWR to constantly improve
Jewish World Review Nov. 17, 2000 / 19 Mar-Cheshvan, 5761

George Will

George Will
JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase

Mallard Fillmore

Michael Barone
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Don Feder
Suzanne Fields
James Glassman
Paul Greenberg
Bob Greene
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Marianne Jennings
Michael Kelly
Mort Kondracke
Ch. Krauthammer
Lawrence Kudlow
Dr. Laura
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Chris Matthews
Michael Medved
MUGGER
Kathleen Parker
Wes Pruden
Debbie Schlussel
Sam Schulman
Amity Shlaes
Roger Simon
Tony Snow
Thomas Sowell
Cal Thomas
Jonathan S. Tobin
Ben Wattenberg
Bruce Williams
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman

Consumer Reports


Slow-motion larceny


http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- IN HIS CAMPAIGN to follow in the presidency a man defined by moral turpitude, Al Gore promised, "You ain't seen nothing yet." Now we know what he meant. Credit him with a promise kept.

Credit also his farsightedness in entrusting his campaign to Mayor Daley's son, for whom the manufacturing (literally the making by hand) of votes is a family tradition. Credit also the artistry--and audacity; it is being televised--of William Daley's mechanism for manufacturing votes in Florida.

His advancement of the family craft is in manufacturing votes not before or during an election as his father did, but for days--weeks, if permitted--after the election. The desperation of George W. Bush's failed request for a federal court injunction to stop Daley's mechanism--a third, this time manual, count--indicates that the election probably will soon be stolen unless the Florida secretary of state's 5 p.m. deadline, which is statutory and which she stressed last Thursday, holds.

The Gore campaign's mantra is that on Election Day their man won the votes cast but not the votes counted. However, that formulation erases a distinction crucial to the integrity of elections. A vote is not simply anything done by anyone handed a ballot. A vote results only from the proper use of a ballot. Gore's postelection strategy has been to make more and more elastic the standards governing proper use of a ballot. The goal is to give wide latitude to the conscious or unconscious bias of ballot counters.

Although Bush and his advisers agonized about what they knew would be a severe public relations problem in going to federal court, one stark calculation trumped all others: They believed, with certitude and correctly, that unless an injunction stopped the manual count, they would lose the presidency.

They knew obtaining an injunction was quite unlikely. However, seeking one would at least plant a predicate for an appeal on constitutional grounds after the manual recount. The appeal would allege that the right to vote of all other Florida voters, 6 million of them, had been abridged, without due process and in denial of equal protection of the law, by the supposed solicitude of some Democratic counties for a few thousand voters who botched the marking of their ballots and may have wanted to vote for Gore.

Also, Bush's advisers hoped that the appeal to a federal court might make those conducting the manual recount more cautious about making partisan decisions. Remember, the Palm Beach counters began by changing, in a way favorable to Gore, the criterion for deciding when a punch hole has been punched.

Besides, partisanship by the counters, although a problem, is not Bush's principal problem. That is the grinding arithmetic produced by Daley's mechanism--a recount confined to Gore strongholds. The counters, given enough time, will inexorably produce a Gore victory.

Until the secretary of state affirmed the statutory deadline for certifying the election returns, Gore's minions were loudly demanding strict compliance with Florida law. But as this is written, they were seeking judicial help in suspending the law that would truncate their process of concocting Gore votes.

This third count is standardless, with counters having untrammeled discretion in examining ballots. They are surmising the intent of unknown voters who incompetently punched ballots--in Palm Beach County, about 19,000 such voters. What must be the thoughts of the more than 431,000 county voters who mastered the less-than-Einsteinian challenge of marking their ballots correctly?

Republicans everywhere, seething as they watch slow-motion larceny, wonder why Bush's campaign did not demand manual recounts in counties he carried handily and where there were large numbers of disallowed ballots. For example, Bush carried Duval County--Jacksonville--152,098 to 107,864 and there were 26,000 such ballots. However, Bush officials noted that those ballots were disproportionately cast in precincts that voted heavily for Gore.

This is why Bush had fewer Florida recount options than Gore had: All over Florida, people who had a difficult time correctly marking a ballot were much more apt to be trying to vote Democratic than Republican.

"Technicalities should not determine the presidency," said Daley as he ignited a process to give Gore the presidency on the basis of decisions about whether a particular ballot punch hole was precisely where it should have been, and when chad--a bit of paper clinging to a punch hole--reveals the intent of an unknown voter. Daley, who learned the lesson at his father's knee, and Gore, who learned it from his patron and soulmate, Bill Clinton, understand the political advantage that accrues to people incapable of embarrassment.



Comment on JWR contributor George Will's column by clicking here.

Up

11/13/00: Gore, Hungry for Power
11/09/00: No, the System Worked
11/06/00: The case for Bush
11/03/00: The Framers' Electoral wisdom
10/30/00: Political astronomy
10/27/00: Candidates condescending
10/23/00: No Partners For Peace
10/20/00: Talking peace with thugs
10/11/00: A feast of retreats
10/10/00: .. And what's gotten into the Danes?
10/05/00: The Agony of Debate
10/02/00: Senate Canvas
09/28/00: Milosevic: Not Another Saddam
09/25/00: Blaming the Voters
09/22/00: Saying No to the Euro
09/18/00: Farewell, Mr. Moynihan
09/14/00: When 'Choice' Rules
09/12/00: Colombia Illusions
09/08/00: Will He Spend It All?
09/04/00: Back in the U.S.S.R.
08/31/00: Stonewalling School Reform
08/28/00: Uphill for a California Republican
08/24/00: Sauerkraut Ice Cream
08/21/00: The Partial-Birth Censors
08/18/00: A Party to Prosperity
08/14/00: The National Scold on the Stump
08/10/00: The Thinking Person's Choice
08/07/00: The GOP of Powell And Rice
08/03/00: Panic in the Gore Camp
07/27/00: . . . Both Radical and Reassuring
07/06/00: Harry Potter: A Wizard's Return
07/03/00: Recalling the Revolution
06/29/00: An Act of Judicial Infamy
06/26/00: Life, Liberty and ... the Pursuit of Foxes
06/21/00: Fumble on Prayer
06/19/00: The unified field theory of culture
06/15/00: Schools Beset by Lawyers And Shrinks
06/12/00: Missile Defense Charade
06/07/00: The Grandparent Dissent
06/05/00: Liberal Condescension
06/01/00: Great Awakenings
05/30/00: Suddenly Social Security
05/25/00: Forget Values, Let's Talk Virtues
05/22/00: AlGore the Hysteric
05/15/00: Majestic Avenue
05/11/00: Just How Irrational Is the Exuberance?
05/08/00: Home-Run Glut
05/04/00: A Lesson Plan for Gore
05/01/00: The Hijacking of the Primaries
04/28/00: The Raid in Little Havana
04/24/00: Tinkering Again
04/17/00: A Judgment Against Hate
04/13/00: Tech- Stock Joy Ride
04/10/00: What the bobos are buying
04/06/00: A must-read horror book
04/03/00: 'Improving' the Bill of Rights
03/30/00: Sleaze, The Sequel
03/27/00: How new 'rights' will destroy freedom
03/23/00: Death and the Liveliest Writing
03/20/00: Powell is Dubyah's best bet
03/16/00: Free to Be Politically Intense
03/13/00: Runnin', Gunnin' and Gambling
03/09/00: And Now Back to Republican Business
03/06/00: As the Clock Runs Out on Bradley
03/02/00: Island of Equal Protection
02/28/00: . . . The Right Response
02/24/00: Federal Swelling
02/22/00: Greenspan Tweaks
02/17/00: Crucial Carolina (and Montana and . . .)
02/10/00: McCain's Distortions
02/10/00: The Disciplining of Austria
02/07/00: Free to Speak, Free to Give
02/02/00: Conservatives in a Changing Market
01/31/00: America's true unity day
01/27/00: For the Voter Who Can't Be Bothered
01/25/00: The FBI and the golden age of child pornography
01/20/00: Scruples and Science
01/18/00: Bradley: Better for What Ails Us
01/13/00: O'Brian Rules the Waves
01/10/00: Patron of the boom
01/06/00: In Cactus Jack's Footsteps
01/03/00: The long year
12/31/99: A Stark Perspective On a Radical Century
12/20/99: Soldiers' Snapshots of the Hell They Created
12/16/99: Star-Crossed Banner
12/13/99: Hubert Humphrey Wannabe
12/09/99: Stupidity in Seattle
12/06/99: Bradley's most important vote
12/03/99: Boys will be boys --- or you can always drug 'em
12/01/99: Confidence in the Gore Camp
11/29/99: Busing's End
11/22/99: When We Enjoyed Politics
11/18/99: Ever the Global Gloomster
11/15/99: The Politics of Sanctimony
11/10/99: Risks of Restraining
11/08/99: Willie Brown Besieged
11/04/99: One-House Town
11/01/99: Crack and Cant
10/28/99: Tax Break for the Yachting Class
10/25/99: Ready for The Big Leagues?
10/21/99: Where honor and responsibility still exist
10/18/99: Is Free Speech Only for the Media?
10/14/99: A Beguiling Amateur
10/11/99: Money in Politics: Where's the Problem?
10/08/99: Soft Thinking On Soft Money

© 2000, Washington Post Writer's Group