Fairness for Whom?
                By BOB HERBERT

          Take a deep breath. Whatever happens in this election — whichever
          candidate is unfortunate enough to win — the country will survive.

          Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who is advising the Gore
          campaign, said he expects the dispute to be resolved in a matter of days.
          "We want to reach a full and fair result," he said on "Meet the Whore."
          "But we want to do it in an expeditious way."

          With luck, this fiasco will be resolved in a week or two. But with all due
          respect to Mr. Christopher, there is little chance it will be resolved fully and fairly.

          The butterfly ballot mess in Palm Beach County has been widely
          reported. But there are also complaints that thousands of other properly
          registered Floridians, many of them black, were improperly prevented
          from voting. This has not gotten a lot of attention.

          If you have large numbers of voters complaining that they were denied
          access to the polls, and you combine that with the fact that the Bush
          campaign is doing all it can to prevent a complete count of those who did
          vote, it's very difficult to imagine a way in which a full and fair result can
          be arrived at in a couple of weeks.

          Public pressure can — and probably will — force one of the candidates
          to concede before a lot of time has passed. But it cannot force a fair and
          honest result. And that favors the Republicans. The public opinion polls
          leading up to Election Day — and the exit polls on Election Day —
          showed Vice President Al Gore ahead in Florida. They were probably
          right. They did not take into account butterfly ballots and voter
          suppression. Mr. Gore would most likely have won an unhampered vote.
          The nation will have to live with this affront for the next four years.

          Gov. George W. Bush famously said of John McCain, "He can't take the
          high horse and then claim the low road." Well, Mr. Bush and his
          campaign are doing something along those garbled lines by galloping into
          federal court in a misguided effort to stop the hand counting of ballots in
          Palm Beach County.

          Make no mistake — the Republicans are not interested in a full and fair
          count. They are not interested in seeing that all eligible voters have
          unhampered access to the polls. And they most certainly do not want
          African-American voters casting their ballots in any large numbers.

          These are matters that should get the highest degree of attention now and
          over the next several years. Florida has a lousy history when it comes to
          protecting the rights of voters, and both Democrats and Republicans
          ought to be addressing that.

          But don't hold your breath waiting for help from the Republicans. The
          Bush camp is frantically trying to get this election sealed before the sheriff
          shows up and takes it away. Former Secretary of State James A. Baker
          III asserted on Thursday that "we need to back off here a bit about filing
          lawsuits and hurling charges." What he meant, apparently, was that Gore
          partisans should back off. Because there he was on Saturday
          championing the Bush campaign's decision to file its dubious federal
          lawsuit to stop the hand count in Palm Beach County.

          Is there a Republican official anywhere in the country who is concerned
          about the fact that many thousands of honest voters in Florida have apparently
          been thwarted in their effort to vote for the candidate of their choice?

          Over the last few days we've seen Mr. Bush playing president down in
          Texas, bouncing around like a puppy among the big dogs from his
          father's administration. He declared, among other things, that "there's
          issues in Israel right now that I'm looking forward to hearing about."

          If Mr. Bush is ahead in Florida after the absentee ballots are counted,
          there will be tremendous pressure on Al Gore to forget the voter suppression
          and concede the White House to his Texas rival. And he would probably do so.

          And, politically, he would probably be better off.

          Looking ahead to this next presidency is like looking at a new car that's
          been damaged on the way to the showroom. Mr. Gore may find that it's
          better to let W. have it.

          As for the rest of us, we keep hearing that this election has shown that
          every vote counts. What we need to hear is how important it is to turn a
          spotlight on the enemies of democracy who go out of their way to
          prevent eligible Americans from voting.