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Given the state Senate's reluctance to proceed, the speaker of the House decides to hold off.
By JULIE HAUSERMAN, LUCY MORGAN, DIANE RADO and SHELBY OPPEL
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 6, 2000
TALLAHASSEE -- Republican House Speaker Tom Feeney backed off his headlong rush toward a special legislative session Tuesday, saying he's willing to "chill out for a day or two" and see what happens in the courts.
With a nod to the more cautious approach of his fellow Republican leader, Senate President John McKay, Feeney said: "We've got a dance partner and we can't dance alone."
McKay said Tuesday that the Legislature has time: Electors aren't scheduled to meet to choose the U.S. president until Dec. 18. The only pressure McKay said he's feeling is "the House's desire to move more expeditiously" than the Senate.
"Most, if not all, the senators prefer the more cautious approach," McKay said.
Feeney and McKay have to agree jointly to call a special session to choose electors. Feeney said he would have called a special session weeks ago and said his "drop dead date" comes in the next two to six days.
Feeney gave a dire speech Tuesday, urging his fellow Republicans to join him in a special session.
"Only one entity can fix the problem: We're it. We didn't ask for it," Feeney said. "This is a duty that has been imposed on us by the U.S. Constitution."
Democrats responded with a letter from 37 legal experts who say Feeney is wrong.
Democrats argue that Florida already has sent in a slate of electors, pledging Florida's 25 electoral votes to Gov. George W. Bush. Republicans say court battles could cast doubt on the official elector list.
On Tuesday, partisan bickering rose to new heights.
Democratic lawmakers filed their own "friend of the court" brief at the Florida Supreme Court, which said the Legislature's first "friend of the court" brief only represented the views of Republicans who support Bush, not Democrats who support Vice President Al Gore.
Today, Republicans and Democrats plan dueling protests in front of the Capitol.
Democrats, working with the Florida AFL-CIO, are scheduled to hold a 1 p.m. rally in the capitol courtyard with more than 2,000 people. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, AFL-CIO president John Sweeney and NOW president Patricia Ireland are expected to speak.
The state Republican Party got a permit Tuesday to hold a demonstration of at least 1,000 people.
Democrats erected a "Democracy Wall of Ribbons" in the Capitol courtyard Tuesday -- a display of some 20,000 orange, yellow and green ribbons, with names of dissatisfied voters on them. "Each of these ribbons stands for a person whose vote has not been counted and whose vote has not been heard," a sign read.
Even top Republicans who serve as electors urged caution Tuesday about a special session.
"I would be for waiting until the very last minute," said Orange County chairman Mel Martinez. "I just don't think there's any need to politically exacerbate the issue."
"It would be my hope that (a special session) wouldn't be necessary," said Tampa developer and prominent GOP fundraiser Al Austin. He would, however, support a special session if legal challenges drag on "without a definite or clear ending."
Gov. Jeb Bush, just back from a trip to New York, weighed in about Monday's court decisions.
"These rulings, I think, again bring greater clarity, and the rulings so far have done that in favor of my brother. But irrespective of that, bringing clarity to this is the best news so that we can move on," Bush said. "My belief is the Legislature should act if it has to. It shouldn't act if it doesn't."
"If the judiciary rules that there should be more counts, and somehow hypothetically Al Gore was certified as the winner, I don't think the Legislature should overturn that and I don't think they should overturn the fact that my brother is certified the winner now. But I do think that they should act to make sure . . . that there are electors in Florida," the Florida governor said.
Asked again if he would accept Gore as the winner if there were another recount, Bush said: "I'd say, let's move on and that's what I have been saying."