Over the pre-Thanksgiving weekend, as their alma maters clashed waspily in the Harvard-Yale game (Yale won) and as the candidates themselves went for highly publicized jogs (Governor Bush is faster), Al Gore and George W. Bush spinners continued their grating arguments for and against manual ballot recounts in Florida. In this battle of repetitiousness, conducted in any media forum available and with virtually interchangeable spokespersons -- bench Jim Baker for Marc Racicot; tag in David Boies when Warren Christopher starts falling asleep -- it's not particularly easy to warm up to either side. Indeed, in this respect, the post-campaign is very much like the campaign itself.
Over the pre-Thanksgiving weekend, as their alma maters clashed waspily in the Harvard-Yale game (Yale won) and as the candidates themselves went for highly publicized jogs (Governor Bush is faster), Al Gore and George W. Bush spinners continued their grating arguments for and against manual ballot recounts in Florida. In this battle of repetitiousness, conducted in any media forum available and with virtually interchangeable spokespersons -- bench Jim Baker for Marc Racicot; tag in David Boies when Warren Christopher starts falling asleep -- it's not particularly easy to warm up to either side. Indeed, in this respect, the post-campaign is very much like the campaign itself.
But there's an important difference, too. Whereas the election turned on whose plans were best for the country (a matter of interpretation), the Florida recount is about who actually won the most votes (a matter of fact, though difficult to ascertain). And perhaps that's why intellectually, the apparent reasonableness of the Gore position -- carefully counting machine-rejected votes by hand to make sure none are missed -- seems to be winning out in the mind of the American public. According to a November 20th Gallup poll, 60 percent of those interviewed said they thought manual recounts should be included in the final vote tally for Florida. That included 23 percent of Bush supporters. By contrast, only 6 percent of Gore supporters were splitters to the Republican side, and opposed hand recounts (presumably buying into the bizarrely futurist argument that these counts introduce subjectivity and "human error" into the process).
Generally, the conservative punditariat has shown less diversity on the question of hand counts than regular folks. But there have been some prominent righties who have proved willing to set aside GOP talking points, and utter the heresy that these recounts are the best way of determining who won in Florida. Here are some of the big names after whom RNC-chairman Jim Nicholson is surely naming his voodoo dolls:
Chuck Hagel. The first term Nebraska senator, a prominent supporter of John McCain and a fellow Vietnam veteran, suggested recently on MSNBC's Hardball that the only way of achieving an electoral result that would be indisputable would be to hand-recount all 67 of Florida's counties (a Gore suggestion, rejected by Bush). In a follow-up interview with Salon's Jake Tapper, Hagel commented, "I know some of my Republican friends and colleagues would probably prefer me to take the company line . . . But I don't think it's in the best interests of George Bush and I want George Bush to be president." Hagel continued, "We must guard that which is most precious, which is that the process that produces the next president must be seen as legitimate and validated."
Similarly, there's:
Ed Rollins. Despite Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris's much-cackled-at makeup, this longtime Republican consultant actually seems to like the way she looks; Rollins described her as "an attractive, articulate woman" recently on CNBC's Rivera Live. But that was the only good thing he had to say about Harris -- who has done her damnedest to prevent hand recounts -- or the Republican strategy she epitomizes. "Obviously I'm going to get in trouble with my party again," Rollins told Geraldo. He then went on to argue that, in any situation where an election comes down to only a few hundred votes, recounts are "a common practice." Rollins finished with this kicker: "If I was running [the Bush campaign] . . . I would have taken the . . . Gore offer, and I would have counted every vote, and I would hope that I beat him on the ground, and I'd have walked away and said, 'I'm president of the United States, and I deserve to be.'"
And if you're looking for an independent-minded conservative, albeit an erratic one, don't forget about good old . . .
Bill Kristol. The leading lights of the conservative media have generally been herd-minded when it comes to the hand recount issue. Indeed, the latest Weekly Standard contains a conspiratorial editorial by David Tell, written on behalf of the editors (Kristol and Fred Barnes), that essentially accuses Democratic Florida election officials of committing vast vote fraud in Florida on the night of November 8th -- without a grain of evidence to support the claim.
However, Kristol himself was much more moderate when discussing hand recounts with NBC's Katie Couric on November 14th. "We have had plenty of hand recounts in American elections over the years," Kristol pointed out. And then he, too, bucked the partisan line, offering a Hagel-ish -- indeed a Gore-ish -- solution. "I say this as a Republican, I'm not sure this is in Bush's interest," Kristol began. "But it really, as a matter of equity . . . the obvious compromise -- is a statewide carefully monitored hand recount."
And when it comes to conservative independents, don't forget:
Pat Buchanan. Yes, he's crazy. But he says what he thinks. That's why the Reform Party nominee willingly confessed at the outset, "When I took one look at that ballot on Election Night . . . it's very easy for me to see how someone could have voted for me in the belief they voted for Al Gore." And a campaign aide called the idea that thousands voted for Buchanan in the liberal county "nonsense." Of course, few now seem willing to attempt to deal with the problematic questions raised by the Palm Beach butterfly ballot -- a revote in that county, for example, seems politically impossible at this point. But roughly a week ago, when the Florida debate had not yet shifted to the issue of hand recounts, Republicans were alleging that Palm Beach County was a Buchanan stronghold. And Pat told them otherwise.
Of course, independent-minded conservative pundits, party operatives, and representatives aren't the only ones challenging the Bush campaign's self-righteous opposition to hand recounts. As Gallup proved, a lot of good old, "American Gothic"-style regular folks disagree with the GOP position. On November 20th, CNN interviewed one of them:
Mary Cross. A registered Republican, Cross is a Palm Beach County vote counter currently engaged in the manual recount. Cross told CNN's Carol Lin that she had seen no evidence of any of the sort of malfeasance that Republicans have alleged is going on during the hand recount process. After hearing this, Lin asked: "So what do you think of your party making such a brouhaha about how these ballots are being counted and how perhaps they should even be invalidated?" Cross responded: "I'm not very proud of them." That was not on her talking points.
