Gore may keep going until last case is done

Lieberman, unlike his running mate, calls the Florida Supreme Court "the final arbiter.''

©Associated Press

© St. Petersburg Times, published December 6, 2000

WASHINGTON -- While his running mate tossed around promises of finality, Al Gore opened the door Tuesday to fighting beyond his own election appeal until all related court cases are resolved.

The vice president, taking questions from reporters outside the White House, zeroed in on private lawsuits going to trial Wednesday in Florida's Seminole and Martin counties over absentee ballot irregularities there.

Those cases, like his own contest of Florida's narrow presidential vote for Republican George W. Bush, will end up in the Florida Supreme Court, Gore predicted.

A reporter asked, "Will you hang on while that happens?"

"Those are hypotheticals on top of hypotheticals and I'm just not comfortable dealing with a hypothetical like that," Gore said.

"I do think that it's likely that all of the current controversies will end up being resolved, one way or another, in the Florida Supreme Court."

He stopped well short of saying he would concede the race for the White House if his own appeal is rejected by the state's highest court, which was to hear arguments Thursday.

"When the issues that are now being considered in the Florida Supreme Court are decided that'll be an important point," Gore said. "But I don't want to speculate on what the Florida Supreme Court will do."

Aides played down any suggestion that Gore would continue the fight, noting that the Seminole and Martin cases, to which Gore is not a party, could be decided by week's end.

Gore's comments punctuated a two-day hustle by his running mate, Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, between conference calls and closed-door caucuses on Capitol Hill meant to assure Democratic lawmakers that an end to the legal wrangling was near.

"We've always said that the Florida Supreme Court will be the final arbiter," Lieberman repeated several times Tuesday.

Asked whether he and Gore would concede if the state Supreme Court upholds a lower court's rejection of their election contest, Lieberman replied:

"The ultimate decisions obviously ... are up to the vice president. But I think that we're going to put our faith in the Florida Supreme Court."

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