Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
By Compiled from Times staff and wire reports
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 10, 2000
Clinton backs Gore's limitations on his aid
WASHINGTON -- Amid the fracas over whether Al Gore or George W. Bush will be the next president, White House officials on Thursday defended Gore's decision to limit President Clinton's campaign activity -- a move that may have cost the Democrat some votes.
Clinton agreed with the vice president's desire to run independently, even bowing to Gore's decision not to send him to Florida and Arkansas, the president's home state, earlier in the campaign, said White House spokesman Jake Siewert.
Former President Jimmy Carter on Thursday urged Americans to be patient during "unprecedented circumstances" and allow the people of Florida to decide the outcome of one of the closest presidential elections ever.
Carter, in Washington for a 200th anniversary celebration of the White House, spoke briefly to reporters at a news conference where he said he had not watched the news all day and thus was unaware of the details. But the 39th president expressed his confidence in the integrity of Vice President Al Gore, Gov. George W. Bush, election officials in Florida and the Constitution.
"This is a time not for frivolous delays in the process, which I think would be condemned by the American people, and I don't think it's a time for premature concessions because we don't yet know the facts about what has occurred in Florida," he said.
HAVANA -- Cuba blamed election uncertainty in Florida on enemies of Fidel Castro, charging that Cuban exiles there are trying to regain the political power they lost with Elian Gonzalez's return to the communist island.
"A dark cloud today darkens the political scene in the United States," the Communist Party daily Granma declared Thursday in a front-page editorial. "Once again this nation pays the price for its leaders' criminal and genocidal policies toward our nation."
WASHINGTON -- A House telecommunications panel launched an investigation Thursday into what led news organizations to prematurely call Democrat Al Gore the winner in Florida and whether that depressed voter turnout elsewhere in the country.
The panel's chairman, Republican Rep. Billy Tauzin of Louisiana, told reporters that the call for Gore, which was reversed a few hours later, happened before all polls in Florida had closed and may have deterred Republican voters in states where polls were open much later.
TRANSITION OFFICE: The offices on two floors of a downtown Washington building are sitting vacant, computers, fax machines and telephones plugged in and ready. And the General Services Administration is eager to hand over the keys.
GSA Deputy Administrator Thurman Davis said Thursday: "We'll make the call on handing over the offices whenever the determination is made on who is going to be president. If we get lawsuits, we cannot know who the winner is."
INAUGURATION: Inaugural planners are making lists, scoping out space, reviewing the parade route, and writing specs for the presidential reviewing stand on Pennsylvania Avenue. Subcommittees are meeting, and Web sites are up.
The inauguration workers say they do not need to know -- yet -- who will be the next president.
"Here we are up in the air, but that does not stop us," said Barbara Childs, deputy director for operations at the District of Columbia Emergency Management Agency, which coordinates inaugural planning for the city. "There are things that are always done for inaugurals and we are continuing those things."
LOS ANGELES -- On Wednesday, Gil Garcetti conceded defeat in his race for a third term as Los Angeles County district attorney. He was defeated on Tuesday by a longtime assistant district attorney, Steve Cooley.
His office's failure to gain convictions against four white officers who were videotaped beating the black motorist Rodney King was followed by riots in which more than 50 people were killed and damage totaled nearly $1-billion.
The televised prosecution of O.J. Simpson in the murder of his ex-wife and a friend of hers raised questions about the competence of Garcetti's deputies.
-- Times staff writer John Balz contributed to this report.