Let's consider the Bush campaign actions to date:
1) The media calls Florida for Gore at around
8:30 on Tuesday, November 7,
based on exit polls given by the Voter News Service
that, in all other
states, are a very accurate reflection of the
outcome of each state's votes.
2) Almost immediately George Bush is on TV, fuming
about the call and insisting
he's won Florida. The media, like the whore sheep
they are, almost immediately
takes Florida out of the Gore column and puts
it back in the undecided column.
3) At about 2:15, Bush cousin John Ellis--election
director at Fox News,
owned by right wing billionaire Rupert Murdoch--without
ANY contact or prior
notice from the Voter News Service, contacts
Fox News and declares Bush the
winner in Florida, and hence the winner of the
election. The media, like the
whore sheep they are, call the election for Bush.
Soon after, Gore calls Bush
to concede the election.
(Ediotr's note: I swear, I didn't write this)
4) Gore receives a call perhaps moments before
he is to make his public
concession from Florida Attorney General and
campaign chair Bob Butterworth,
telling him not to concede, that the vote count
shows it is too close to call.
Gore calls Bush back, retracts his concession.
Bush gets pissy,
Gore tells him pointedly that his "little brother"
doesn't decide the election.
5) Because the election is so close, well within
the .5% margin, Florida
institutes an automatic recount of every vote
in every county and precinct,
as prescribed by Florida statute. Meantime Bush
and his cronies make
public statements declaring him the winner and
talk about his "transition
team" and his future cabinet.
6) Reports begin to surface about major voting
irregularities in counties
considered Democratic strongholds; reports include
complaints from Palm
Beach county about a confusing, misleading, and
possibly illegal ballot
(complaints that started almost immediately after
the polls opened on Tuesday
morning at 7 a.m.); complaints from black voters
of being turned away at the polls
for having felony convictions that didn't actually
exist, black voters being turned
away even with voter registration cards because
their names were not on the rolls,
complaints from Haitian voters who asked for
translators at the polls but were
denied them, and were mislead into voting for
Bush; complaints from elderly voters
that because of major ballot confusion they think
they voted for Buchanan the Nazi
instead of Gore (which bears out considering
how much higher Buchanan's vote was
in this overwhelmingly Jewish county).
7) Results of the statewide recount show a net
gain of Gore over Bush 4 to 1--that is,
Gore gains roughly 4 votes for every 1 Bush gains
in the recount. Palm Beach voters
announce they are going to file a lawsuit demanding
a revote b/c the ballot is illegal.
8) The Bush campaign response? First they call
the elderly Jewish voters
(many Holocaust survivors and veterans) stupid.
Then they slam Gore for "taking this to
the courts". They accuse Jesse Jackson and the
NAACP, which goes to Florida to hear
complaints from black voters of voting problems,
of "inciting a riot".
9) Jeb Bush, having recused himself from the process,
seems to disappear, but
he leaves his appointee, SoS and longtime Bush
supporter and active Bush
campaigner Katherine Harris, in charge.
10) The Gore campaign requests and receives handcounts
in 4 counties, in
accordance with Florida law that allows for recounts
by request if done in a
72 hour period. The Bush camp cries foul, accuses
Gore of dragging out the
process, insists that Gore concede, continues
to insist Bush has won and
continues to talk about the transition team.
11) The Bush campaign, all the while blasting
Gore for "going to court",
nonetheless goes to FEDERAL court demanding an
injunction to stop the recounts.
They lose.
12) Republicans insist that hand counts are not
accurate, even though all
evidence is to the contrary and in fact most
states require hand counts in
close elections to verify machine results; even
Bush signed a law in
Texas to this effect.
13) Harris then announces that all recount results
have to be in by 5 p.m.
Tues. Nov. 14 in order to be "certified."
14) Baker offers a "compromise" (not): the Bush
campaign will accept the
recount results provided they are handed in by
Harris's specified, arbitrary time.
15) Leon judge Terry rules that Harris does have
discretion to demand that recounts be in
by her appointed time, but cannot throw out LATE
VOTE TALLIES arbitrarily.
16) Harris says in a press conference last night
that "on the advice of attorneys" she will
answer no questions, and that she will consider
late vote counts, but counties doing hand
counts must send her affidavits by 2 p.m. today
justifying why they are doing recounts
(once again, abusing her position).
17) The Bush campaign appeals the injunction ruling to a Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.
18) Harris files a request to the FL Supreme Court asking them to deal with pretty much everything.
The Gore camp has yet to go to court--in fact
it is the VOTERS of the counties who have
gone to court to get their votes counted fairly.
Meantime the Bush campaign itself has filed
TWO requests to stop a handcount, and Harris
has asked the FL Supreme Court to take over.
Meantime, Broward is going ahead with its full
recount, as is Palm Beach.
Many in the print media are insisting the only
totally fair way to do this is
a full state-wide recount, a solution that the
Gore campaign has indicated it
will accept readily, while again, the Bush campaign
refuses.
The Bush camp does NOT want a recount, period.
At this point I think a revote
is highly unlikely, but a recount may well happen,
yet the Bush campaign
continues to vehemently oppose this, and does
so by going to federal court
twice to stop it, then tries to get Harris to
issue arbitrary rulings as to
which votes will count and which won't.
The question is why? And the answer is simple:
they fear the result, which I
am now almost certain will show that Al Gore
did indeed get more votes than
George W. Bush in Florida, and that Gore won
the election.
The Republicans can claim until they're blue in
the face that they want this
done b/c it's better for the country for a quick
result, but once again their
opinion goes completely counter to that of the
majority of Americans, who
overwhelmingly want a recount, even on the statewide
level, in order to
ensure as accurate a result as possible.
It is impeachment all over again. Even the press,
which has whored for them
throughout the presidential campaign, is starting
to turn.