--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Kind of like the all star game. For years one league
> will dominate and then  
> the other. Right now the republicans are on a major
> roll. In either event 
> fraud  remains fraud. We should be against it where
> ever it  occurs

OK.  I eagerly await your condemnation of the Gore
campaign's effort to have recounts conducted _only_ in
those counties most favorable to it, and SCOFLA's
order that recounts be conducted _only_ in counties
favorable to Gore, and under terms more favorable to
Gore than those proposed by _either_ campaign.

By contrast - I think John and Doug are both right, to
an extent.  I'm pretty sure I've said this before, but
so far as I can tell, the only fair interpretation of
what happened in Florida is that _both_ sides tried to
steal it.  

The Gore campaign attempted to exclude military
ballots unfairly, called for highly selective recounts
in only a few Democratic areas (while chanting "count
every vote" with a straight face, something _I_
couldn't have managed), and relied on a highly
partisan Florida Supreme Court (the marvelously
acronymed-SCOFLA) to rig the recounts.  Oh yes, it
also took advantage of a highly-partisan media's early
declaration in favor of Gore to suppress turnout in
the Republican panhandle.  

On the other hand, the Bush campaign tried to get
military ballots counted in places where they
shouldn't have been, _also_ tried to claim recounts
only in favorable areas, and accepted an (at best)
highly dubious US Supreme Court decision redeemed only
slightly by the fact that it was slightly better than
the one it overturned.

We are lucky only to the extent that, according to the
recounts conducted by _every_ non-partisan
organization (to the extent that the Washington Post
and New York Times can be called non-partisan
organizations) the side that should have won (under a
full state-wide recount) actually did, in fact, win. 
But that's just luck.  Had (for example) James Baker
been a Democrat and Warren Christopher a Republican,
then I expect that Al Gore would be President of the
United States today, and Republicans would be _really_
pissed, since the Washington Post and New York Times
(assuming they conducted the statewide survey, which
is unlikely had Gore won, but possible, I guess) would
have had to say that Bush "should have" in some
mystical sense, won the Florida votes.  Which they,
you know, did, in the real world.

=====
Gautam Mukunda
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Freedom is not free"
http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com


                
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