Re: Republican Lies

[levien@cc.gatech.edu (Levien de Braal)]

Hello all,

"Reuben Bruchez" <reuben@mindspring.net> wrote:
>What's trully wonky is that the real electoral college election
>still hasn't occured yet.

Well, there is a history for referring to someone as 'President Elect' well
before the electoral college election. It has been a formality for so long
anyway. I do think it's awfully presumptious and arrogant for Bush to declare
victory and calling on Gore to do "what's best for the country". In this
case that's just an euphemism for letting Bush get away with what he's doing.

>I wouldn't be very surprised if the electoral college in
>Florida decides to split according to Congressional districts, with the two
>outstanding votes being split evenly between Gore and Bush. That way, all
>this recount crap can be ignored, since the four districts in question were
>Gore districts to begin with.

I would be. The Florida Supreme court can arbitrate on the procedures and
hence declare the election void or Gore the winner, but it's the Florida
legislature that gets to assign electors. Again, usually this is done based
on who wins the election, but since that's not 100% clear they have some
considerable discretion. The legislature in Florida is dominated by
Republicans, and if they were to decide as you suggest they'd be putting
Al Gore in the White House (he's leading in Electoral votes outside Florida,
and has the advantage for Oregon, and to a lesser extent New Mexico [come to
speak of NM, I want to see Gore and Bush play poker over that one :-) ] ).

The way I see it, the only way Al Gore is going to win is if the Florida
Supreme Court rules in his favor highly convincingly. Anything less and either
the current result stands, or the Florida or Federal legislature will decide.
Any of those outcomes means victory for Bush, IMHO. I do like that one
bizarre posibility though where the Senate gets to decide on who will be the
new Vice-President. Since it looks to be like it'll be a tie, Al Gore himself
as current VP would cast the tie-breaking vote. I wonder if he could vote for
himself (the Bush/Gore administration!! :-)  or whether he'd be limited
to choose between Liebermann and Cheney. Anyone?

Isn't partisanship great? :-)

Levien
-- 
"Do you hear the people sing, Lost in the valley of the night?
 It is the music of a people, Who are climbing to the light.
 For the wretched of the earth, There is a flame that never dies.
 Even the darkest night will end, And the sun will rise." -- Les Miserables