Excellent NY Post Opinion that appeared in the Nov. 29, 2000 issue
HELL NO, HE WON'T GO
Wednesday,November 29,2000
Al Gore popped up on national TV
yesterday afternoon for
the second time in just 17 hours, proposing that George W.
Bush sign on to a bizarre scheme patently not in the Texas
governor's best interests.
Plus which, by all appearances, what Gore proposed would be
illegal.
Such conduct is not appropriate by prospective presidents of the
United States.
To put it mildly.
Gore proposed that he and Bush agree between them to a
"special master" to expedite the veep's lawsuits
alleging
ballot miscounts and irregularities.
Why Bush would want to do this is a puzzlement: Under
Florida law, he officially won the state's 25 presidential
electors Sunday evening.
But here's a bigger - indeed, critical - mystery: Whence the
authority to do such a thing?
Yes, the vice president is a name partner in the Clinton-Gore
anti-law firm: ("Our motto: We make it up as we go
along.")
But that only works with tame attorneys general.
In Florida, with the whole world watching, candidates for
public office can't agree - all by themselves - to revise the
election law.
It's illegal.
Even if the Bush camp hadn't rejected it out of hand, the
scheme would necessarily have been a non-starter.
So why propose it in the first place?
It's safe to suppose that the overnight polls from Gore's
unctuous Monday night address were horrific.
Time to crank it up another notch?
It didn't work.
He had nothing new to say - beyond his clever little proposal.
If anything, yesterday's address made the veep look even
more ridiculous than he did Monday night - when he stood in
front of a phalanx of American flags and, with eyes darting,
stiffly repeated the lies and half-truths that have carried him
since Election Day.
But it is one thing for Al Gore Jr. to look ridiculous.
It's quite another for him to render the United States of America
bereft of dignity.
And credibility.
Most Americans understand what Gore is up to: They see a
combination of ambition, obsession and denial informing the
vice president's rhetoric.
They know that this has been an extraordinarily close
election and that its outcome has been far from satisfying.
But they don't really doubt the legitimacy of the exercise.
Gore is doing his best to undermine this confidence.
This could have unhappy consequences. Especially if Gore
gives the rest of the world reason to believe that the new
American president arrived in office illegitimately.
Al Gore Jr. may believe that the presidency is being stolen from
him.
But that's his problem.
He needs to deal with it, like an adult. Before he does even more
damage.
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