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A Legal Slaughterhouse By Paul Begala MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 — It was the legal equivalent of a slaughterhouse. Leon County Circuit Court Judge N. Sanders Saul rejected Al Gore’s contest of the presidential election on every point. He ruled that it was okay for Miami-Dade County to start and then stop its recount, that it was okay for Secretary of State Katherine Harris to reject the Gore gains from Miami- Dade’s partial recount before the Banana Republicans intimidated the vote-counters, that it was okay for Palm Beach County to use a very strict standard as to whether to count hanging or dimpled chads; he even ruled that it was okay for Nassau County to ignore the results of the machine recount. I AM A LAWYER, and I don’t want to play one on TV. But it seems to me that while Judge Sauls was probably right to allow Palm Beach County to use a stricter standard than another county — since the Florida statute doesn’t articulate a single, statewide standard — it seems quite amazing that he would approve of Nassau County ignoring the statutorily mandated machine recount, and even more amazing that he would approve of Miami-Dade’s outrageous start/stop recount/non-recount. HELP FROM THE BENCH It’s a remarkable thing when a judge finds arguments for one side that even some of the best lawyers in America didn’t dream up. As Bush attorney Barry Richard crowed in his post-victory news conference, Judge Saul went for all his arguments — he even found one Richard had not thought of. It’s a remarkable thing when a judge finds arguments for one side that even some of the best lawyers in America didn’t dream up. STAGGERING HYPOCRISY And in Washington today, the United States Supreme Court punted. It sent the Florida vote-count ruling back to the Florida Supreme Court and asked the lower court to clarify its ruling and rationale. With any luck, the federal justices will leave the decision in the hands of the Florida courts — where it belonged all along. The most interesting and illuminating thing about the Supremes’ brief and unsatisfying sojourn into this case has been the extent to which conservatives — whose careers have been built on proclaiming deference to states — were suddenly willing to overrule a state court’s interpretation of a state law. The hypocrisy is staggering. Congress’ role vis-à-vis the states has been so circumscribed by the U.S. Supreme Court that states are not even required to abide by certain federal employment discrimination laws. So, according to the conservatives, Washington can’t tell states they’re forbidden to discriminate in the hiring of state employees, but the Supreme Court may tell the states how to interpret state laws. Preposterous. ANY MEANS NECESSARY And so all roads lead to the Florida Supreme Court. That is the court to which the U.S. Supremes turned for guidance. This is also the court that, after ruling for Gore on his initial attempt to allow time for manual recounts, was vilified by the right. “Impugned” is the word Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg used in admonishing the Bush team during oral arguments. But attacking courts, sponsoring mobs, ridiculing Holocaust survivors in Florida — it’s all in a day’s work for the Banana Republicans. After all, when your mission is to “restore honor and integrity to the White House,” you’ve got to be willing to use any means necessary. U.S. Supreme Court's opinion Today’s Washington Post poll reports that the majority of Americans support Gore’s fundamental position. Some 60 percent of those surveyed say a hand count of votes in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties ought to be conducted and included in the final tally before Florida’s 25 electoral votes are awarded. Sixty-one percent of those polled say they’re not worried by the ongoing contest — despite Generalissimo Jim Baker’s chicken-little routine. And 56 percent say they do not approve of a legislative coup d’etat from the Tallahassee Taliban — the right- wing Bush-backers who run the Florida legislature. It must haunt Junior to know that he lost the popular vote, lost the support of the majority of Floridians, but is scheming to take the White House through such extraordinary tactics. Naaaah. Like me, most Americans want all the votes counted. We can live with one outcome or the other — that’s what democracy’s all about. But it’s not really democracy if you don’t count all the votes. And despite the Banana Republicans’ mendacious mantra that “we’ve had a count, a recount and a selected hand count,” the stark reality is that thousands of ballots have never been counted — not once. And the Bushies don’t want them to ever be counted — because they fear the full expression of the will of the people. CHADS ON TRIAL This weekend’s vote-counting trial before Leon County Circuit Court Judge Sanders Sauls — like all trials — had its share of mind-numbing boredom. But Sunday afternoon there came a moment most lawyers only dream about. John Ahmann, an expert on punch-card voting machines who was called by the Bush campaign, was trying to convince the court that the Gore camp’s complaints about the machines were specious. Ahmann testified that Votomatic machines do not get backed-up by chads (which the Gore camp argued caused many ballots to be merely dimpled rather than punched through). But no sooner had he made this statement than a Gore attorney confronted Ahmann with his own application for a patent to improve the Votomatic, in which Ahmann claimed the machines routinely suffer from the very shortcomings Gore complained about — including backed-up chads that make it difficult for voters to punch their ballots all the way through. In his patent application, Ahmann wrote, “The surface of the punchboard has become so clogged with chips as to prevent a clean punching operation. Incompletely punched cards can cause serious errors to occur in data-processing operations utilizing such cards.” Before long, Ahmann was sounding like a witness for the Gore camp, even stressing the need for manual recounts. Chalk one up for the Veep’s team. STIFLING WILL OF THE PEOPLE Both camps are operating under the same basic assumption: Most of the people who were trying to vote in Florida on Nov. 7 were Al Gore supporters. Thus Gore wants to give the fullest possible expression to the will of the people, while Bush wants to use every technicality, every detail, every deadline, and every thuggish tactic imaginable to exclude as many votes as he can. Votes for both sides were cast. Ballots do exist. And one day they will be counted; either now as part of a careful count, or later as part of history. And what will we do if we find that the exit polls were right — that the clear intention of the majority of Floridians was to give their electoral votes to Al Gore? Both the Miami Herald and the Orlando Sentinel have hired experts to analyze voting patterns and project what would have happened if every vote were truly counted. Both papers show a solid Gore victory — with a margin as high as 23,000 votes. It must haunt Junior to know that he lost the popular vote, lost the support of the majority of Floridians, but is scheming to take the White House through such extraordinary tactics. Naaaah. That presumes the guy thinks, reflects, ponders as he sits out under the broad skies of McLennan County, Texas. CRITICAL CASE Finally, let me stress one more time the case of the allegedly altered absentee ballot applications in Seminole and Martin counties. I know it’s hard to keep your eye on so many balls, but this case (in which Gore has no role) could be the most troublesome for the Republicans. According to a press release from a group calling itself the Justice in Florida Committee, which supports the legal challenge in Seminole County, a local reporter testified in a deposition that last month he interviewed controversial Seminole County election supervisor Sandra Goard. She is accused of allowing Republican political operatives to alter applications for absentee ballots in her county, while denying that same opportunity to Democrats. The reporter, according to Justice in Florida, says Goard told him — on tape — that her office would not honor absentee ballot request forms submitted without voter identification numbers. Justice in Florida claims this interview “was broadcast at the same time as Goard was permitting workers paid by the Republican Party to complete the forms.” It is not unprecedented in Florida to invalidate all absentee ballots in a county if there is evidence of wrongdoing. Such a move would be disastrous for the Bush forces, since Bush carried the Seminole County and Martin County absentee vote by thousands of votes. How ironic if Bush — the man who has fought so hard to exclude so many votes — is defeated because thousands of his votes were excluded as illegal. == Democratic strategist Paul Begala is the co-host, with Oliver North, of MSNBC’s “Equal Time.” Begala is also the author of “Is Our Children Learning? The Case Against George W. Bush.” | |