http://drudgereport.com/cost.htm
XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX WED MAY 02, 2001 09:37:28 ET XXXXX
NEW BOOK GOES BEHIND-THE-SCENES OF U.S. ELECTION MESS
**EXCLUSIVE**
Vice President Al Gore's lawyers high-fived each other after disqualifying
more than 1,000 military ballots from overseas on trumped-up
hypertechnicalities during the Florida recount, a new book reveals.
Here comes the book of books on the Florida election standoff: "At Any Cost:
How Al Gore Tried to Steal the Election," by Bill Sammon, Senior White House
Correspondent for the WASHINGTON TIMES.
"A win's a win," crowed one of Gore's lawyers after tossing out the ballot
of Navy Lieutenant John Russell, who at that moment was off the coast of
Yemen, where he had just finished rescuing the USS Cole in the wake of a
deadly terrorist attack.
Sammon tracked Russell down for the officer's first ever interview.
"I was hot," Russell said. "Here I am, deployed overseas. I've done
everything I can to cast my ballot properly. And I find out my vote doesn't
count because of a lousy postmark even though they received it before
Election Day. Oh, I was torqued."
Sammon, who spent 18 months covering the Gore campaign and all 36 days of
the post-election debacle in Florida, has inked a blow-by-blow of the
historic standoff.
The DRUDGE REPORT has secured the first advance copy.
Sammon reveals how Republicans got their hands on the Gore team's secret
memo detailing how to disqualify military ballots.
Sammon also gets Democratic strategist Bob Beckel to describe, for the first
time, how his quest to flip Bush electors unleashed a backlash of public
outrage that frightened him and his family.
MORE
Beckel told the author:
"It got nasty, I tell you. I got 15,000 faxes, 10,000 letters, 2,000 phone
calls, 132 death threats. They picked up a guy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
with my picture and a bullet hole through it with a gun. So it was just
brutal. They got into my garage at my office and wrote 'You're dead.' I had
to go into protective custody."
Sammon secured exclusive interviews with Bush and Cheney, asking them to
describe their darkest moments during the 36-day standoff.
AT ANY COST is set for release next week; it ranked #4011 on AMAZON.COM's
sales list early Wednesday.
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Filed By Matt Drudge
Reports are moved when circumstances warrant
http://www.drudgereport.com for updates
(c)DRUDGE REPORT 2001
Not for reproduction without permission of the author
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