Whew! It’s finally over. We can go back to grabbing a beer and unwinding after work
by watching ESPN or a movie instead of getting wound up watching the fate of the nation
play out on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News Channel.

But as tempting as it is to look forward to a more peaceful political future,
it’s important to take a sober look back at what we have just been through.

First off, let’s get this U.S. Supreme Court decision straight. The key issue in that dispute
was a landslide in favor of George W. Bush. By a vote of 7–2—which included conservatives,
moderates, and even two liberals—the Supremes saw clearly that the selective hand recounts
that Gore wanted were unconstitutional.

And the 5–4 vote to basically preempt the Florida Supreme Court from trying for a third time
to devise a fair way to count the ballots by hand was virtually meaningless.
Even lifelong Democrats, like chat-show star Pat Caddell—a consultant for the left-wing
dream TV series “West Wing”—admit that the only way Gore could have won was by the
ridiculous and unconstitutional standard of “dimples wild.”

Anybody that would say "Even Pat Caddell," as tho Caddell was considered a sane man
by any Democrat in America, is proving himself to be a prostitute with no conscience.
If Pat Caddell is your best anchor to reality, you have very serious psychological problems.

Pat Cadell has made a name for himself with Fox News and Chris the Screamer
by turning on his party and calling Al Gore every nasty name in the Book of Hysterics.
You can object to Al Gore and still be a Democrat, but to go on television every single night
and trash your candidate over and over and again and again just proves you're a media tool.

Out of the thousands of high-profile, television-friendly Democrats, only Cadell was
repeatedly invited and that's because it's great theater to have a turncoat on TV
spewing wild, cock-eyed theories about the "crimes" of his own "evil" party.

He was put on TV like the bearded lady or the five-legged cow at the State fair.
He was so strange, and so odd, that he was amazing to look at.
And the whore media couldn't get enough of him.
 

We should be thanking the U.S. Supreme Court for preventing the theft of the presidency
by such underhanded methods. Despite all of Gore’s talk of wanting to count every vote,
his campaign and his squadron of lawyers had no intention of doing anything of the sort.

Wait a minute: You just used the phrase "even Pat Cadell," so your credibility is shot.
For you to endorse the Supreme Court's rape of the voter just proves my point.
Anyone who would see Caddell as a legitimate voice of the Democrats becomes a
tar baby to any idea or group he endorses. Go on, tell us how smart and brave the Supremes
were to take this decision out of the voters' hands. Go on, prove my point for me.
 

Gore’s spinners make much of the fact that they offered President-elect Bush the opportunity
to conduct a full hand recount of every ballot in Florida. Yet, when the Florida Supreme Court
suggested that very thing, not only did Bush’s lawyers decline, but so did Gore’s.

Whatever the Florida Supreme Court "suggested" was not going to fly with the all-white
"let's-get-involved" Supreme Court. It's like a ten-year old saying "I'll fly to Paris with you,"
without asking his parent's permission.
 

As a lengthy New York Times story explained on Friday, Team Gore “could not be sure
whether [they] would win a statewide recount.” So their strategy for victory was to rig
the rules in their favor. It took the U.S. Supreme Court to stop them.

That's horseshit and everybody knows it.
Gore fought his heart out for an accurate recount - and you say he thought he'd lose?
Bush spent millions to prevent a recount - the facts speak louder than the New York Whore Times.
 

This is important to remember because Gore would have governed the country in much
the same way he fought in Florida—that is, lie, cheat, steal, do whatever it takes.

Excuse me, but if you say it - that makes it true?
You lost all credibility in the fourth paragraph.
You say "it's important to remember Gore's a bad guy?"
What a partisan idiot you are, Mr Lakely.

You could've used this space to make some kind of credible point, but no.
"Everybody knows Gore is pure evil" isn't even worth spitting on.
Funny, the "guy who would do whatever it takes," won the popular vote, nationwide AND in Florida,
but he's not going to be president, now is he? The facts are calling you a liar, Mr Lakely.
 

From Day One, the Clinton–Gore crowd has moved through Washington as if on a twisted
holy crusade. All who don’t believe as they do must either be converted or destroyed
— and the latter is much easier. Just ask Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris.

Your bias and insanity are clearer than Grey Goose vodka.
Bill Clinton worked harder and accomplished more than any president of the 20th century
and you can't stand that fact so you trash him without reason and without proof.
Jeb recused himself "because it would appear too partisan." But Bush's campaign manager,
Harris, stayed on to quick-count the voting so it could be "certified."

Didn't you just say Gore would do ANYTHING to win?
But you don't mind Bush's campiagn manager certifying the quick-count?
Tell me, are you related to Andrew Sullivan?
 

As the Times reported, the Gore campaign was so bold that it conducted these
scorched-earth tactics out in the open. Said Gore campaign communications
director Mark Fabiani: Trashing Harris was “the right thing to do, and it worked.”

Harris was guilty - Jeb Bush proved that by doing the right thing.
You, Mr Lakely, trash the innocent.  We trash the guilty.
If you have a problem with that, talk to Jeb and he'll explain it.
 

Note that strange conclusion. Though tearing down Harris didn’t stop the law from
being upheld and Bush’s victory from being certified, the strategy still “worked”
because it lowered Harris’ esteem in the eyes of the public—hence Bush’s.

The end of the Clinton–Gore era, I have reason to hope, means that such routine
viciousness will fade into history.

I've asked this before and didn't get a single response:
Name some innocent person who Clinton/Gore attacked.
Name someone who they attacked that didn't attack first.
You can't do it, because nobody like that exists.
If I call your mother, Mr Lakely, a filthy name, I'd expect you to attack me.
You see how that works?.
 

For all the talk of Republicans in Congress being wild-eyed crazies, no one
—not even Newt Gingrich —can match the record for scandal that marked the Clinton–Gore era.

That's not true.
Clinton had one scandal - Monica - which wasn't any of our business.
The other "scandals" were Republican smoke, and Kenneth Starr proved that.
After five years and $50,000,000, Monica was the closest he could get to a "crime."
Why are you lying, Mr Lakely?  The facts are so different from your claims.
 

Before the Iran–Contra controversy, media wags used to decry the “sleaze factor”in the Reagan
White House over stuff like Nancy Reagan buying all new china and Attorney General Ed Meese
for accepting too-expensive cuff links from foreigners.
Those days now seem downright quaint.

Yes, but as you just stated, Iran-Contra changed all that.
Selling weapons to Big Terror, lying about it, committing perjury over it, than having to pardon
the guilty so the real truth doesn't come out, makes all of Clinton "scandals" seem quaint.
Why would you include an island of truth in your ocean of horseshit?
 

While a President Gore could have been counted on to refrain from “counseling”
various interns in the nooks and crannies of the White House, he had many scandals
that were safe to talk about in front of the kids—like, say, raising funny campaign money
and lying to every federal investigator who asked about it.

If you had any proof of those wild-ass fabrications you just made, your ditto-monkey congress
would indict Gore, but since there's only your wild-ass suspicions - they didn't, now did they?
Why do you say things like, "the Arizona Cardinals have won 5 Super Bowls in a row,"
when everyone knows they didn't? Don't you have any sense of what you're claiming?
Don't you know people are reading what you write, Mr Lakely?
You can print ANYTHING that you want to be true, but it's not, and the reader knows it.
Tell me, did Mr Scaife send you a check?
What else could motivate you to fabricate these silly notions?
 

Al Gore’s concession speech is being hailed far and wide for its generosity and warmth.
But just because Gore surprised the country by proving that he is, indeed, a human being
and not a Vulcan, that hardly wipes away everything he put the country through during the past 39 days.

Sir, compared to the un-elected idiot from Texas, Pee Wee Herman is a Vulcan.
So is Bozo the Clown and Jo-Jo the dog-faced boy.
And Gore didn't put the country through anything.
He won this election, and I don't care how Bush's cousin called it at Fox.
It took a brother in charge, a campaign chairman calling a quick-count and a Supreme Court
with the morals of Benedict Arnold to grease the skids for the drunk-driving team.
And unlike your fabricated charges, mine are recorded facts.
 

The soon-to-be ex-vice president should not be so enthusiastically lauded for doing
something an honorable man would have done a month ago.

Gee, Mr Lakely, is that wisdom something "even Pat Caddell" would agree with?
Mr Lakely, I invite you to a one-on-one debate.
Do you have the courage to accept such an offer?
You can participate from the safety of your home or office.
Of course, this is a trap, because you won't be hiding behind a keyboard.
You won't be able to freely invent facts - you'll have to defend what you claim.
You'll be forced to answer questions that will expose your bias and your lies.

It would take courage to debate online for an hour.
Do you have that courage, Mr Lakely?

Or are you "too busy?"
 
 

JAMES G. LAKELY is an editorial writer for The Free Lance–Star.