-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~> <FONT COLOR="#000099">eGroups eLerts It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free! </FONT><A HREF="http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/2/_/1406/_/974972046/"><B>Click Here!</B></A> ---------------------------------------------------------------------_-> Please send as far and wide as possible. Thanks, Robert Sterling Editor, The Konformist http://www.konformist.com http://www.villagevoice.com Mondo Washington by James Ridgeway ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- GOP Pit Bulls Unleashed Capitol Hell In the wake of the election from hell, we finally have an idea of how deep the divide is. Over the weekend and on Monday, enraged GOP right- wingers began discussing a possible "doomsday scenario." It goes like this: If Al Gore manages to eke out a victory over George W. Bush, Republican congressional backbenchers—muzzled for most of the election and furious at what they believe to be Gore campaign- scripted vote manipulation in Florida—intend to take matters into their own hands. House Majority leader Tom DeLay (known affectionately as "The Hammer") vows to block any move aimed at electing Gore in Congress when it meets in joint session to accept the results of the electoral college (see "A House Divided"). These plans were going forward behind the scenes in Washington as the Florida Supreme Court retired Monday after questioning attorneys for both sides. Some Republicans, including Bob Dole, are talking about boycotting a Gore inaugural. A handful of Democrats, angry at the way Gore's advisers have handled the campaign and its aftermath, are openly sympathetic. The tip of the iceberg could be seen in a blind quote in The Washington Post on Monday, reportedly from a top Democratic leader: "The depth of resentment and the extraordinary hostility the Republicans already have demonstrated towards the vice president is far greater than the somewhat mild opposition that Democrats have expressed about Bush." On Capitol Hill, legislative aides are saying that conservative ("blue dog") and moderate New Democrats will have no trouble working with Bush on Medicare, taxes, and campaign-finance reform. In certain respects, some would rather have Bush than Gore. Bush has no baggage on Capitol Hill and has worked with conservative Democrats in Texas. Gore is recognized on the Hill for the cold fish that he is. Not only does he drag the Clinton scandal wherever he goes, but he has been aloof to the Republican opposition. The question is: at what price do the conservative Republicans go along? Though small in number, they remain the driving force within the party, shaping not only its ideology but its tactics. Bush has shown himself to be beholden to the right-wingers, his vicious smearing of John McCain in South Carolina being a prime example. DeLay's gang of backbenchers is the delightful group that brought us impeachment. Gagging on Clinton's survival amid record high popularity, they have for the last year had to endure the president's mocking of them. For the House Republicans, Gore is a Clinton cousin, and with Hillary in the Senate, a stepping-stone to a Clinton reign for years to come. Under no circumstances are they prepared to let that happen. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- Chad Is a Country in Africa Racism—Florida's Real Scandal When Joe Lieberman unctuously declared on Meet the Press Sunday morning that "every vote counts," he wasn't talking about the ballots not cast by African Americans, Haitians, and other minorities in Florida. In many respects, the untold story of the election lies not with the excited middle-class white Democrats of Palm Beach County, but with the thousands of black people who were turned away from the polls in a bizarre rerun of the segregated South before the Voting Rights Act. It is the most amazing irony of the election in that the black populations, which for years have formed the base of the Democratic Party—at least before the Democratic Leadership Council took over—were prevented from voting with amazingly little protest from the party bigwigs. These voters could easily have carried the vice president to victory in Florida. And, of course, the Republicans— who now are the real Southern Democrats—have refrained from even mentioning the subject. Not only were many blacks blocked from ballot access in Florida, but the Gore team apparently ignored them on election day. Campaign boss Bill Daley's main goal seems to have been to count and recount the votes of Palm Beach County, which the vice president won by 140,000 votes. Not once did Daley ask for a new election so these disenfranchised black citizens could vote. And only as an afterthought did he even raise the possibility of recounting all the votes in the state. In fact, the most vigorous proponent of a state recount has been Nebraska Republican senator Chuck Hagel. One thing now seems clear: On election day, many white Florida election officials were doing their utmost to make sure blacks and other minorities didn't vote. That's the real scandal in Florida. The NAACP, which continues to pile up testimony from African Americans who say they were disenfranchised, wants the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the situation. "This is a corrupted, tainted process, an attempt to steal an election," Reverend Jesse Jackson said last week. Among the claims: That African Americans received phone calls the weekend before the election from people who claimed to be with the NAACP, urging them to vote for Bush. (Similar calls were reported in Michigan and Virginia.) That roadblocks were set up a few hundred yards from voting places in Volusia County. Police stopped cars and ordered black men to get out of their vehicles and produce identification. (The Justice Department is reviewing the complaints to determine whether they amount to violations of law.) That the morning after the election, employees at four predominantly black Miami-area schools which had been used as polling sites found stuffed ballot boxes, which apparently had not been counted. (The boxes were sent to elections officials.) That, in a maneuver that smacks of the civil rights fights in the old South, substantial numbers of blacks were turned away from polling booths in various parts of the state. In Hillsborough County, sheriff's deputies who checked voter IDs allegedly claimed that the race of the prospective voters—which is listed on Florida voter ID cards—didn't match the race of the person standing in front of them. "I can't tell you how many times it happened," Sheila Douglas of the NAACP told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, "but it happened more often than not." (In addition, Nizam Arain, who works with Jackson's team of investigators, claimed black men in Hillsborough County were turned away from polling places as convicted felons, even though such proof was lacking. Jackson later said some black voters in the county were told there were no more ballots or that polls were closed.) That in largely Republican Duval County about 27,000 people were disqualified when they attempted to vote. More than 12,000 disqualifications came from four districts that are mostly African American. "While I expected some complaints, it struck me . . . that this was startling in its scope and size," said Penda Hair, director of the Advancement Project, which advocates social and racial justice. "It seems that in counties across Florida, voters who were qualified were turned away at the polls. It was a denial of the right to vote that seemed to be concentrated in African American precincts." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- The Election That No One Can Stand A House Divided No matter who certifies the vote, the battle over the election seems certain to go on. With increasing intensity, both sides are now lobbying the electoral college, which meets in Washington on December 18. In an election this close, the very existence of the electoral college opens the door to possible corruption. Throughout history, only nine electors have not voted as they were mandated to do. None were prosecuted. But 26 states don't require electors to vote the way the popular vote in their state went. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia require electors to follow the popular vote but have no penalties for noncompliance. Five states have penalties but the penalties are often token. Florida seems to have no law requiring electors to vote a certain way. A possible indication of what's in store came last week when two South Carolina electors told the State, the newspaper in Columbia, that they had received phone calls from unidentified individuals urging them to switch their votes from Bush to Gore. Bush easily carried South Carolina, garnering 57 percent of the vote. The state has eight electoral votes. The men said they'd rather fight than switch. "I'd cut my arm off first before voting for Al Gore," Cecil Windham, a retired farmer, told the paper. Taking the election into the House of Representatives, where each state gets one vote, may seem like the wildest of wild-card scenarios, but just in case, members have begun sounding off on the possibility. Standing out from the pack was Connie Morella, the liberal Republican who represents affluent Washington suburbs in Maryland. Morella announced last week that in the case of a House vote she would desert Bush and vote for Gore. Like so much else in Washington politics, her statement may appease constituents (many of whom in Morella's district either work for the government or in businesses dependent on government) but has little significance. Although the Maryland delegation is evenly split and her vote would give the state to Gore, Republicans control enough delegations to win. Some legislators also are hatching plans to get into the spotlight when the electoral college presents its votes to the House in what is usually a routine ceremony in early January. As noted above, Tom DeLay is prepared to carry the fight to the floor. And research memos prepared for both congressional Democrats and Republicans point out that the 12th Amendment requires Congress to gather in a joint session to tally the electoral votes. At this session any House member joined by any Senate member could object to the Florida votes. If that were to happen, each chamber then would meet separately to debate the question. However, throwing out the votes of the electoral college is not easy. To disqualify votes, both houses must agree. If the Senate were tied, Vice President Gore could end up casting the decisive vote. Without Florida, neither candidate would have the requisite 270 votes needed to win and the election would go to the House. In the House, each state delegation would have one vote and would not be bound by the electoral votes. Republicans have majorities in 27 state delegations, while the Democrats control 17. Four delegations are tied and two are facing recounts, according to the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. This story is part of the Village Voice's ongoing 2000 presidential election coverage. ***** Ominous portents, fighting words For Bush and the GOP, a stop-at-nothing strategy could win the presidency and spark a constitutional crisis George W. Bush, attacked the Florida Supreme Court ruling Thursday and signaled his willingness Wednesday to circumvent the courts and have the matter decided by the Florida legislature and possibly the House of Representatives. By Eric Alterman MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR Nov. 22 — The country is approaching a political danger zone whose potential peril may soon exceed the Republican Congress's 1998 assault on the Constitution. Impeachment, for all its circus-like qualities, was a constitutionally directed process overseen by the US Supreme Court. But so bent on victory is George W. Bush that he seems ready to undermine not only the power, but also the legitimacy of the Florida Supreme Court. His campaign paints its legal decisions as merely another political tactic by the Gore campaign to try to steal his presidency under the cover of manual recounts. Prepare to enter a political danger zone, in which the law is debased and politics rule. BUSH ANGRILY ACCUSES the Florida Supreme Court not of interpreting the law, but of "rewriting" it and "overreaching" its powers. He follows on the irate indictment of Bush family consigliere, James A. Baker III, who attacked the seven justices who ruled unanimously against the Bush campaign. Baker implied that the court, which was appointed exclusively by Democratic governors, was simply stretching its mandate to elect Al Gore. A REAL STRETCH "The Gore campaign is working to try to change the counting rules and standards in the three counties that are still manually recounting so as to overcome Governor Bush's continuing lead," Baker complained Tuesday. Bush, speaking the next day, insisted that the Gore team was working to change the "legitimate result" of the vote after the votes had taken place, as if the Florida Supreme Court had no right to interpret the will of its people. This constituted, he said, "a stretch." The Bush/Baker war on the Florida Supreme Court appears to be laying the groundwork for the final result of the vote recount to be overturned in the state legislature, if possible, and the U.S. House of Representatives, if necessary. Baker hinted at this when he suggested that "no one should now be surprised" if Florida's Republican legislature decides to overturn what Bush oddly called court's "legalistic" decision. (Bush said he would leave this decision to Baker.) This would be a truly remarkable turn of events. To undo the lawful ruling of the Florida Supreme Court, lawmakers would either have to pass a new, post-facto law to overturn the court's decision, or simply ignore the vote and choose its own slate of electors. Either decision would require the explicit assistance and perhaps even the signature of the Republican candidate's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; hardly an action that the rest of the nation can be expected to view as fair or legitimate. GOING TO EXTREMES Going beyond the legislature to the U.S. House of Representatives to claim victory, however, would be an even more extreme step, making a mockery of George W. Bush's and the Republicans' entire political philosophy of preferring local control over all matters to federal authority. Yet we have already heard House Republican Whip Tom DeLay advise his colleagues in a memo that it may be necessary to challenge the seating of a Florida delegation to the Electoral College that does not plan to hand the vote to George Bush. Al Gore has disavowed any efforts to challenge the results of an Electoral College vote or "turn" any Republican electors to his side. The Bush camp has so far been silent on this issue. WINNING AT ANY COST The Bush/Baker war on the Florida Supreme Court appears to be laying the groundwork for the final result of the vote recount to be overturned in the state legislature, if possible, and the U.S. House of Representatives, if necessary. Some of the more astute commentators on this crisis have noticed a paradox in the attitudes of the two competing teams. One of the more personally attractive qualities of candidate "W" was the fact that he didn't seem too wrapped up in being president in the first place. He could win, he could lose, but as he said, "life would go on." Al Gore's ambitions, however, appeared naked and all- consuming. Yet each man's party appears to be operating from exactly the opposite assumptions. Democrats can take or leave the presidency this time around, and that's putting it generously. Congressional leaders and party activists believe they will have an excellent chance of picking up enough seats to control Congress next time around against a weakened President Bush, and do not see that they have much to gain from a cautious, centrist, and perhaps fatally damaged Gore presidency. Republicans, on the other hand, cannot bear the notion of another four years of the Clinton/Gore regime they have been desperately trying to overthrow for six years. They will take the presidency on any terms at all — short of asking Colin Powell and Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf to lead a land invasion of Palm Beach County. THE FEROCITY GAP You can see the difference in the tepid and rather nervous support that Gore's efforts have garnered among professional Democrats. His most outspoken advocates have been outsiders like Jesse Jackson and Alan Dershowitz, along with Bob Kerrey, who was himself a bit of an outsider in the Senate and is now retiring to academia. Nearly every Republican quoted in the media, however, seems to be fighting a losing battle against a fury so profound that their language sometimes harkens back to some of the ugliest moments of Germany's Weimar Republic. Pundit George Will, reporting as if from another planet, discerns what he terms "a stunning asymmetry" in the "ferocity gap," as "Democrats fight for power with a frenzy born of … material greed" while the Republicans show nothing but good manners. Here are a few examples from the past few days of Republican timidity: A Bush campaign aide in Tallahassee terms the Florida Supreme Court a Democratic "banana jury." Majority Whip Tom DeLay calls the court a collection of liberal activists who have "arbitrarily swept away thoughtfully designed statutes ensuring free and fair elections and replaced them with their own political opinions." Rep. J. C. Watts, fourth-ranking official in the House majority, labels Al Gore "a candidate who will not win or lose honorably, but will try to do so through cut-throat tactics that eight years under President Clinton have taught him." Former Republican Secretary of Education and Republican pundit William Bennett insists, "Al Gore is trying to steal this election [with] … thuggish tactics." The editors of the Wall street Journal accuse Gore and the Democrats of planning legally-mandated "coup d'etat." RUNNING FROM THE FIGHT Nearly every Republican quoted in the media seems to be fighting a losing battle against a fury so profound that their language harkens back to some of the ugliest moments of Germany's Weimar Republic. How will it all end? My money, I am sorry to say, is on George Bush. Time.com carried a report over the weekend that Gore's top advisers, Warren Christopher and William Daley were already planning to talk him into quitting if the key court rulings did not go his way. Joe Lieberman was not even willing to risk his safe Senate seat on this election. They will run away from this fight the first chance they get. Meanwhile, Al Gore has been too dutiful a young man his entire life to resist the pressure of party elders to throw in the towel when the going gets rough and the public's patience begins to wear thin — particularly when he is looking stronger than ever for 2004. SLOWING DOWN THE COUNT The Republicans, meanwhile, appear to have an endless array of tactical attacks in their arsenal. Hypocrites they may be, but they will at the very least be able to tie the election up in knots long enough to convince wavering Democrats to jump ship. They have already tried to short-circuit the democratic process through the arbitrary rulings of a minor party functionary, Bush campaign co-chair and Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, before being publicly humiliated by the court. They have also contravened their own statements about the desire to keep the entire matter out of the courts and in the hands of the "people" by beating the Gore team into the judge's chambers. Both of these schemes backfired, but an almost endless array remain to be tried. The Republicans can purposely slow down the manual count in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties to a snail's pace in order to sabotage their to meet the court-imposed deadline of 5 pm Sunday. They can challenge every ruling of the Florida Supreme Court in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, and even the U.S. Supreme Court. The latter may be allowed under a something called the Rooker- Feldman Doctrine, which allows a plaintiff to go directly to the Supreme Court when the decision of a state court raises a constitutional question. They can use their advantage in the Florida legislature and the governor's office to overturn a new count. They can ram whatever they want through the Republican-controlled House of Representatives if all else fails. And no matter what they do, they will have the support of a significant portion of the punditocracy, who have come to share their hatred of Bill Clinton and Al Gore with a vehemence that long ago traversed the boundaries of rationality. And what of George W. Bush? Will he call off the dogs, stand on principle as the "healer" he claims to be, and instruct his brother and Tom DeLay not to use the power of their respective offices in any way that might forever stain his administration with the taint of illegitimacy? I beg the reader's indulgence for my last sentence. After all, I am paid to write political analysis, not fairy tales. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- Eric Alterman is a columnist for The Nation and a regular contributor to MSNBC. If you are interested in a free subscription to The Konformist Newswire, please visit http://www.eGroups.com/list/konformist/ and sign up. Or, e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject: "I NEED 2 KONFORM!!!" (Okay, you can use something else, but it's a kool catch phrase.) Visit the Klub Konformist at Yahoo!: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/klubkonformist
