Breaking Faith
 
              By BOB HERBERT

          George W. Bush and the Republicans are coming dangerously close
          to breaking faith with the system.

          It is one thing for an American to disagree with a court's ruling. That's common,
          which is why we have an appeals process. But Mr. Bush and his party appear to
          be saying that no matter what happens — no matter how the courts ultimately rule
          — if Al Gore is ahead in the final tally of Florida votes, they will not accept him as a
          legitimate president, and may well try by legislative means to bar him from the White House.

          No one knows how the vote in Florida will go. But say Mr. Gore wins. By threatening
          to then take the matter to the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature, Mr. Bush and the
          Republicans are signaling their willingness to attempt to deny the presidency to the winner
          of the popular vote nationally, the popular vote in Florida and a majority of the Electoral College.

          That should make you nervous.

          It may not come to that. Mr. Gore may lose the vote in Florida, even after
          the hand recounts. Or we may get another stunning court decision or two.
          Or, even if Mr. Gore wins, cooler heads in the G.O.P. might be able to
          persuade the fire-breathers not to precipitate a full-scale constitutional crisis.

          But for the moment, at least, G.O.P. big shots are seriously considering the
          option of taking the country down a perilous constitutional slope. It is one
          thing for James Baker to express the Bush campaign's dismay over the
          ruling by the Florida Supreme Court that the manual ballot recounts should
          be included in the state's final tally. It is quite another for Mr. Baker to
          bitterly declare, as he did late Tuesday night, that no one should be
          "surprised" if the Republicans in the Florida Legislature start hunting for
          ways to circumvent the ruling.

          The hunt is well under way. In similarly bitter tones, the new speaker of
          the Florida House of Representatives, Tom Feeney, made it clear that if
          Mr. Gore were to win the final tally, he and his G.O.P. colleagues would
          have few qualms about stepping in and appointing a new set of electors
          who would cast their votes for Mr. Bush and his running mate, Dick Cheney.

          The Republicans act as though terrible things are happening to them, when
          that is not the case at all. Mr. Bush, who lost the popular vote nationally,
          nevertheless stands a good chance of becoming president. That's hardly a
          bad thing. His chances appeared to improve yesterday when officials in
          Miami-Dade County called off the manual recount there, saying they could
          not meet the deadline set by the Florida Supreme Court. And a decision by
          the canvassing board in Palm Beach County on how the so- called dimpled
          chads should be counted did not go Mr. Gore's way.

          Al Gore was supposed to be the guy who would do absolutely anything to
          become president. That, at least, was the portrait of the man put forth so
          assiduously by his opponents. But since Nov. 7 it has been the Bush crowd
          that has seemed willing to take the most extreme steps to capture the White House.

          It was Mr. Gore who said in an overture to Mr. Bush last week: "We
          should both call on all of our supporters to respect the outcome of this
          election, whatever it may be. We should both call on all our supporters to
          prepare themselves to close ranks as Americans and unite the country
          behind the winner as soon as this process is completed."

          Mr. Gore has repeatedly been told, by Democrats and Republicans alike,
          that he has an obligation to act responsibly and to accept the results of the
          election in Florida, even if it goes against him. With a final tally near, the
          same standard should be applied to Mr. Bush.

          The Republicans and the Democrats have been unable to agree on how
          the ballots in Florida should be counted. In the United States, when a
          dispute cannot be resolved, the parties turn to the courts. Both the
          Republicans and the Democrats have done just that, which means that so
          far the system has been working.

          What is disturbing is the thought that after a fair and vigorous fight in
          which the traditional process runs its course, one or the other of the parties
          — in this case the Republican Party — would refuse to abide by the results.

          That is not the American way. That is breaking faith with the system.