11/13/00 (Part I)

Yes, it's me. It really is.

Anne's Journal of Minutiae

Monday
November 13, 2000

And the Chaos rages on. This thing just gets meaner and meaner by the minute. Phalanx after phalanx of lawyers appear before judge after judge, trying to halt the recounts, trying to keep them going.

Now hoary Bush family henchman Jim Baker has slithered into a Florida Federal courtroom to stop the recounts in Palm Beach and other counties. Especially when a manual hand count of two precincts in Palm Beach County alone turned up glaring tally errors -- many in Al Gore's favor. It was so bad that Carol Roberts, a member of Palm Beach County's elections board, ordered a recount of all 425,000 ballots.

If you read between the lines of Baker's spiel, you will find that what he's really saying is, "We prefer the original errors -- so long as they put our man ahead." I'd like to ask the Bush camp why they're so afraid of a recount. I mean, if they truly believe nothing is amiss, and they feel they should win anyway, what's the harm in double-checking the ballots? I have no problem with recounts proceeding in Wisconsin, Iowa and New Mexico -- all states which Gore has won. (Although now that Bush is leading in New Mexico with only four votes, his goons want to stop the recount and call it a day.) I have confidence that Gore will keep those states in the end, so recounts requested by the Bush camp don't scare me. Besides, nobody's stopping Dubya from picking his transition team. Could it be then that the Florida recounts will yield proof of ballot-tampering by Bush and company? Maybe so.

Jeebus (nod to Em) -- the purpose of a recount is to make sure that the final tally is accurate, one way or the other -- whatever the results. This is a close race, fer crissakes! The Republican Secretary of State of Florida, Katherine Harris, tried to halt the recount by quoting some old statute which required ballot results to be certified by this Tuesday at 5:00pm. Luckily a Federal Circuit judge extended the deadline to Saturday. Double-Jeebus!

I've got news for all of you. If Dubya and his goon squad manage to succeed in throwing a monkey wrench into the gears of justice, thus gumming up the works, and storms the White House (as I sadly expect he will), he will not EVER, EVER have my support. I will not support a thug who ignores the will of the people. I will not support a man I believe completely unfit, intellectually and morally, to fulfill the obligations of Commander and Chief of the United States of America. No way, no how. If it were John McCain instead, winning fairly over Al Gore, I could accept that loss. I would support that new president. (Even though I lost a little respect for McCain when he began campaigning for Bush -- who won't pledge to sign the McCain/Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Bill. Gore said he'd sign the bill -- and that was why Bill Bradley campaigned for him.)

(Continue ...)