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Florida needs leader, but all it has is Harris
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 15, 2000 The greatest crisis in the modern history of America is being decided by a millionaire afraid to come out of the woodwork, your secretary of state, Katherine Harris. Harris has rarely been seen in public since shortly after Florida's heart-stopping presidential election returns last Tuesday. A whole week. The governor had necessarily taken himself out of the picture. The job of leading the state through these extraordinary days naturally then fell to Harris, wherever she was. Odd, the contrast: She didn't hesitate to show her face in places as far apart as Barbados, Australia and Washington, D.C., to promote the state, if not herself. It took her only two years in office for her to run up more than $100,000 in travel bills. Now, when she was called to step up to the microphone and actually do the difficult job of leading Florida through the process of unraveling its messy, historymaking elections, she was nowhere to be found. To be fair, the pressure on Harris must be enormous. She was so much a part of George Bush's presidential campaign. And you can almost spit from the front door of her office in the state Capitol down the hall into Jeb Bush's official quarters. So it was no wonder Harris issued a decree from behind closed doors Monday that Marie Antoinette might have liked, if she ever could have gotten accustomed to the notion of a ballot box. Harris said the law gave her the right to throw out the votes of the disputed counties if they weren't in by Tuesday, and she was, of course, going to follow the law. It took a circuit judge in Leon County to force Harris out of the woodwork. A week after Harris went underground, Judge Terry Lewis said she was wrong on the law, that she had the discretion to give the disputed counties more time, and she couldn't abdicate her discretion. In nine pages, Lewis said, more or less, it was time for her to start acting like a statesman -- and time to stop acting like a party hack. That would take courage. Forthrightness. And speech as plain as that she delivered on Monday, when she was acting like Marie Antoinette. Odd, the contrast: Monday's straight talk became Tuesday's ambiguous, controlled pronouncements. And the first one didn't even come from Harris herself, but from a lawyer from a heavyweight law firm, which was giving Harris legal advice. It was brief, and it was curious. Never once did the lawyer mention the 5 p.m. deadline that Harris had, only a day before, talked about as though it were inscribed in stone. Three hours later, Harris came out before the TV lights. Just about the first words of her mouth were that she'd take no questions. On advice of counsel, she said. But in the lawsuits she was on Bush's side. When does she stop playing a litigant and start playing the leader? This was supposed to be Harris' moment. Her chance to rise to the occasion. It has become her opportunity to fall. Based on what she said Tuesday night, it appeared she wanted to reverse the steps the judge required be taken. He said the counties with disputed results could recount, file new numbers, and then Harris had to decide whether to accept them. She said the opposite, that the counties had to explain the need for further counting, and then she would decide if she would take the new numbers. It would be much easier to make the call without having the numbers in front of her. Much harder if they were in front of her, and they added up to a Gore win. Much harder then to act like a statesman.
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From the Times election desk Howard Troxler Mary Jo Melone Sarah Fritz Washington Around the state From the AP national wire  |
