>From: <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: A washingtonpost.com article from [log in to unmask]
>Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2000 00:39:01 -0500 (EST)
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>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63291-2000Dec13.html
>
>Democrats Advising Gore on Decision An AP News Analysis
>By Walter R. Mears
>The Associated Press
>December  13, 2000
>
>WASHINGTON ––  Democrats began advising Al Gore to take the gracious way
>out of the overtime campaign for the White House and yield to George W.
>Bush after the Supreme Court reversed the Florida recount order that held
>the vice president's last hope Tuesday night.
><P>
>For Bush, the mandate was as murky as his margin was minuscule in Florida
>for the electoral votes to give him one more than a majority and make him
>the 43rd president of the United States. And that promised a test like few
>before as he tries to lead and to prove that, as promised, he can be a
>uniter, not a divider.
><P>
>Gore's acceptance of the apparent final blow of the 2000 presidential
>campaign will be a factor in determining how difficult that may prove. The
>vice president won the nationwide popular vote by less than 1 percent and
>lost Florida by 537 votes without the hand recount the court blocked,
>according to the certification of the Republican's challenged victory.
><P>
>But one vote or one million, the verdict was against him in a struggle the
>divided court settled with an extraordinary late-night ruling that the
>recount ordered by the Florida court could not be constitutionally
>conducted in keeping with the Electoral College timetable.
><P>
>The court ruled only two hours before the first deadline involved, the end
>of the day on Tuesday, Dec. 12, the date for selecting electors, to cast
>the presidential votes in the electoral college on Dec. 18. The court
>majority focused on the first date. Dissenters said there was time for
>recounting of so-called undervotes, ballots which did register a
>presidential choice, before the second one, which is firm because it is set
>by the Constitution.
><P>
>The Supreme Court did remand the case to the Florida court "for further
>proceedings," in which some Democrats might see an opening for yet another
>attempt to get hand recounts in the next five days.
><P>
>Lawrence Tribe, the Harvard Law School professor who argued for Gore in an
>earlier Supreme Court round, said it would be up to Gore to press such a
>point, but "I can't believe that there will be an act three in the court."
><P>
>Soon after the decision was announced, Ed Rendell, the blunt-spoken general
>chairman of the Democratic Party, said it was frustrating but the end for
>Gore. "He should act now and concede," Rendell, a former mayor of
>Philadelphia, said on NBC.
><P>
>But Joe Andrew, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, disputed
>him, saying that what Rendell said was unauthorized and outrageous.
><P>
>Democratic Sen. Robert Torricelli of New Jersey had said the same thing.
>"Clearly, the race for the presidency has come to an end," Torricelli said.
>"George Bush is going to be the next president of the United States.
><P>
>"I'm certain that Al Gore will be gracious about it," he said. "He cares
>deeply about the country. I'm sure he'll pay respects to the court."
><P>
>Gore was said to be reviewing the court decision with nothing to say about
>it before Wednesday.
><P>
>After the court decided 5-4 to halt the partial recounts the Florida court
>had ordered on Friday, there were Democratic complaints that the justice
>had intruded on politics where they didn't belong, and that the decision
>was one colored by politics, not founded on law.
><P>
>But Tribe said after the Tuesday night ruling that the place of the high
>court in American life "is such that we all should rally around, even if we
>disagree with the results."
><P>
>Torricelli earlier had said that when there was a winner, by court or by
>recount, be it Bush or Gore, he should fly to the home base of the loser
>and appear with him in a call for national unity.
><P>
>As John F. Kennedy flew from Paul Beach, Fla., to meet with Richard M.
>Nixon after Kennedy's 1960 victory, by two-tenths of a percentage point in
>the popular vote but with a solid electoral college margin. They conferred
>privately.
><P>
>While Republicans said the Supreme Court ruling was it for Gore, the Bush
>camp avoided instant victory claims. James A. Baker III, Bush's
>representative in the Florida contest, said the Texas governor was pleased,
>but went no farther.
><P>
>"This has been a long and arduous process for everyone involved, on both
>sides," was all he said, and no more.
><P>
>Bush made no statement himself. Aides had said before the ruling that if it
>went his way, he would not immediately start naming officials to a new
>Republican administration, but first would act to heal the divisions of the
>campaign and the disputed election five weeks ago.
><P>
>They said Bush could be expected to deliver a unity speech and meet with
>congressional leaders, Democrats as well as Republicans.
><P>
>–––
><P>
>EDITOR'S NOTE – Walter R. Mears has reported on Washington and national
>politics for The Associated Press for more than 35 years.
>

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