Alan Dershowitz. Brilliant, obnoxious Harvard Law Professor, defender of butchers and traitors and stupid voters in Palm Beach. When O. J. was accused of slicing and dicing two people, Dershowitz demanded a recount. When he represented O. J., Dershowitz was very concerned about the integrity of the physical evidence. He has expressed no comparable concern about the continual degradation of the physical evidence from the election: the ballot cards which have been run through machines twice, and manhandled numerous times thereafter by seasonal workers and partisans. The more the evidence disintegrates, the more votes Gore gets. If the punch card doesn't fit, that's no reason to quit.
Bryant Gumbel. Formerly a harmless sports reporter; now a full of himself liberal breakfast television personality who, in a Freudian slip, referred to Secretary of State Katherine Harris as Jean Harris, the murderer of the Scarsdale diet doctor (Nov. 15, 7:35 a. m.).
Carol Roberts. Political hack, battle-axe, who looks like she's sitting on tacks; spoke for Leninists and leftists of all eras when she said she would try to win at all costs: ". . . what happens? Do we go to jail? Because I’m willing to go to jail.” We can only hope.
Katherine Harris. Her picture is in the dictionary under courage, grace, class, glamour. Not a hair or word or act out of place. Like Claude Rains being, "shocked, shocked" that there's gambling going on in Rick's nightclub, the liberal media thought it was big news that she is a public official elected as a Republican. All they had to do was read the Florida Constitution. The State Legislature and the people of the State of Florida vested in her the right to make discretionary decisions concerning elections: "The Department of State shall have general supervision and administration of the election laws . . ." Florida Statute 15.13. The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has explicitly identified the office of Secretary of State as "partisan" and "political" and one whose occupant is allowed to hire and fire personnel on explicitly political criteria. McCloud v. Testa, 97 F.3d 1536 (6th Cir. 1996).
Katherine Harris has not, however, done anything not sanctioned by law or by the Democratic law firm advising her. Her decision not to accept late and fraudulent votes was upheld by a Democratic judge. They say she wants to be an Ambassador. She’d be a great one. She has a master's degree from Harvard in public administration and international affairs. Let's make her Ambassador to the United Socialist Cities, State Capitols and University Towns of America (highlighted in blue).
Julian Epstein. Democratic hack lawyer, talk show Rolodex squatter. Described by the Washington Post as a "creature of Capitol Hill who has spent his entire professional life as a congressional staffer", he said that the machine recount could have an error rate of as high as three percent. I heard that kind of talk for a week and finally decided to pick up a calculator. Three percent of six million is 180,000 votes! The machine recount differed from the first machine count by only a few votes in most counties and where it boosted Gore's totals, it raised suspicions of chicanery. Even so, the differential amounted to little more than 1,000 votes. Another Big Lie bites the dust. He also said on Saturday that Bush had lost every court case. False. Bush won a final trial level decision on the merits upholding the State's deadline for filing returns with the Secretary of State. Gore has won no final trial or appellate level court decision, though the media was suggesting the exact opposite over the weekend.
The Florida Supreme Court. The Court stayed certification of the vote on its own motion. Such rulings always raise the specter of bias. But did they do it to see if Gore loses anyway and therefore avoid having to rule at all? Or did they do it for political reasons: to rob Bush of a public relations victory: a Saturday declaration that he won Florida?
A stay usually requires "irreparable harm" – harm that cannot be remedied later. I see none here, which suggests a bias that would be bad news for Bush. The good news for Bush: civil appeals are denied the vast majority of the time and courts rarely reverse administrative decisions based on an abuse of discretion. That is because the standard of review is not whether the court agrees with the agency decision, but whether the agency decision is substantially without a basis in fact or law. The burden is on the Gore Campaign to overcome a legal presumption that the Secretary of State’s ruling was correct. An intermediate appellate court in Florida described the standard of review this way:
"When a public body exercises its discretionary powers within the ambit of the laws delegated to it, it is not for the courts to determine whether the action of that body is wise, economical or advantageous." Jones v. Braxton, 379 So. 2d 115 (Dist. Ct. App., 1st Dist. 1979).
The Supreme Court itself has spoken on its deferential standard of review of administrative decisions:
"We begin by noting the narrow scope of this Court's review . . . We have only to determine whether [the agency's] action comports with the essential requirements of law and is supported by substantial competent evidence. The burden is on the appellants to overcome the presumption of correctness attached to [agency orders]. . . . We have long recognized that the administrative construction of a statute by an agency or body responsible for the statute's administration is entitled to great weight and should not be overturned unless clearly erroneous." Pan American World Airways, Inc. v. Florida Public Service Commission, 427 So. 2d 716 (1983).
The Florida State Legislature set the deadline and vested the discretion to receive late returns with the Secretary of State, not the Supreme Court:
"If the county returns are not received by the Department of State by 5 p.m. of the seventh day following an election, all missing counties shall be ignored, and the results shown by the returns on file shall be certified." Florida Statute 102.111. "If the returns are not received by the department by the time specified, such returns may be ignored and the results on file at that time may be certified by the department." Florida Statute 102.112.
Let me put it bluntly: if Bush loses, he got hosed!
The Right to Bear Arms. Ensconced in the U. S. and Florida constitutions; the guarantor of the right of the people to alter or abolish the government. No wonder they want to get rid of you, old boy. It's hard to stage a coup d'état in a nation where seventy million citizens own over two hundred million firearms. Albert W. Gore, Jr., like all liberals, thinks the ultimate authority here is the Florida Supreme Court, an elite, unelected body. However, this law school dropout should read the first eight words of the Florida Constitution, "All political power is inherent in the people." If the verdict of the courts does not satisfy the people, there could be a further appeal to what liberal hero Ulysses S. Grant called “the highest tribunal – arms – that man can resort to."
George Bush. The next President of these United States. He's got too many ways to win this thing now. He could win pretty or win ugly, but he's going to win. Stopping the boys "over there" from voting was the last straw. The people are ready to pull the plug on Albert W. Gore, Jr. And Mr. President, bring the troops "over there", home.
November 21, 2000
James Ostrowski is an attorney practicing at 984 Ellicott Square, Buffalo, New York 14203; (716) 854-1440; FAX 853-1303. See his website at http://jamesostrowski.com.
