Howard Baker, the former U.S. senator and White House chief of staff, said on TV some nights back that one or the other of the presidential candidates ought to abandon his personal ambitions and concede the election for the sake of the republic's good. His opponent would merely get to be president, Baker said. The one who stepped aside would get to be a national hero.
Not surprisingly, Al Gore and George W. Bush seem mainly interested in being president. Along with local Democrats in Florida, the Gore camp is engaged in power politics to try to get the vice president elected by means of guesswork about voting intentions in selected Democratic counties, and the Bush camp is far from acknowledging that a majority of Florida voters may have intended to vote for Gore.
The Bush case against the manual recount in Democratic strongholds is a good one. Going through still one more recount - this one highly subjective - does not come close to accomplishing what Joe Lieberman and other Gore spokesmen say is crucial. It does not assure that every voter will have his or her say, only that vote counters will have their say.
These vote counters, flipping through ballots, holding them up to the light and looking for tiny swinging or hanging flaps of paper, are harried and hurried, prone to mistakes and scarcely free of any possible bias. As Republicans were saying on TV over the weekend, this recount will only be the most recent count, not the most accurate. For that reason, the Republicans were right in not seeking manual recounts in Republican counties, even though some Democrats now curiously contend that makes the Bush people responsible for any unequal treatment under the law.
A federal judge has said he will not stop the manual counts. Whether or not he will be overruled on appeal, another issue has cropped up: The Florida secretary of state has said all votes except for overseas ballots will have to be certified by 5 p.m. EST Tuesday (Nov. 14), leaving insufficient time for all but possibly Volusia County to complete the manual recount. Her reading of the law is correct, experts say, but Gore's team has filed suit in state courts to get her overruled.
One recount was enough. These manual counts are highly suspect, and it is manifestly unfair to proceed with the manual counts in big Democratic counties alone. The Democrats see nothing wrong with Democratic election boards flexing their muscle in opting for these counts, but cry foul when a Republican secretary of state wishes to adhere to the law. There aren't many heroes to be found in all of this so far, but on the merits, the Bush camp has a slight lead in doing the right thing.
