Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
A Times Editorial
The Florida Legislature's special session today to guarantee a president is an unwise move, and lawmakers should turn back while they still can.
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 8, 2000
The Florida Supreme Court and two circuit judges in Leon County are deliberating at political gunpoint as they decide who should be the next president of the United States.
The gun was aimed and cocked, figuratively speaking, by House Speaker Tom Feeney and Senate President John McKay when they summoned the Legislature to convene in special session at noon today.
The supposed purpose of that session is only to guarantee that someone -- whether it be George W. Bush, Albert W. Gore or, as some lawmakers coyly say, Ralph Nader -- receives Florida's 25 electoral votes in the event rightful possession is still in dispute after Tuesday. Indeed, McKay and some other Republican lawmakers say they're prepared to appoint Gore's slate should the courts' decisions come to that.
But as most other grown-ups know, that's not at all what most of the Republicans have in mind. Their real mission is to send a message to the courts: Decide any way you like, so long as Bush wins. If you mean to rule for Gore, don't bother.
The legislators' own logic confirms this intent.
They say that so long as any court challenge is pending, Florida "failed to make a choice" -- the key phrase in federal law -- on Nov. 7, the day Congress set for the election of electors nationwide. Therefore, Congress might not treat as "conclusive" the slate of 25 Bush electors that was sent to the National Archives over Gov. Jeb Bush's signature. Consequently, the Legislature has a "duty" to assure that Congress counts Florida's votes on Jan. 6. So the Legislature must assert its original powers under Article II of the U.S. Constitution by naming Florida's electors itself.
As Gore's appeal depends entirely on state law, he has no recourse to the U.S. Supreme Court if Florida's high court rules against him. One way or the other, the court will surely rule before Tuesday. The Seminole and Martin counties' ballot cases will likely be final, too. Everyone in Tallahassee knows what the deadlines are.
Bush, on the other hand, has contended from the beginning that the Constitution and federal law prohibit canvassing boards or Florida courts from conducting selective recounts. So he could still fight on after Tuesday in the event he loses the main case in Tallahassee. But as the "conclusive" nature of his slate would be in doubt, it would help him to have the Legislature disparage the validity of any court decision to certify Gore's electors instead.
Here is the trouble with all that: Unless it was nothing but an illusion that 6-million people voted that day, Florida did make a choice on Nov. 7. What the choice was is still in dispute. But however the court decides it, Congress surely owes that choice more respect than any choice that the Legislature might attempt to declare retroactively.
Moreover, the Constitution makes Congress the final arbiter of a conflict. By law, Congress has said how it would handle that duty:
"If the two houses shall disagree in respect of the counting of such votes, then, and in that case, the votes of the electors whose appointment shall have been certified by the executive of the state, under the seal thereof, shall be counted."
It is not unreasonable for the Republicans to fear what might happen in the Senate, which will be split 50-50 on Jan. 6 with Gore, as vice president, holding the tie-breaking vote. But the House will still be Republican and presumably would guarantee the counting of the votes of the electors whom Jeb Bush certified. Or is it that some Republicans in Austin don't trust the Republicans in Washington?
It remains unfair, unnecessary and unwise for the Legislature to convene today. Unfair, because the Legislature should not be coercing the judiciary. Unnecessary, because it's the job of Congress, not the Florida Legislature, to resolve a lingering conflict. Unwise, because of the vast damage the Legislature might do to itself and to the rule of law in future elections.
"I think we're going on the premise that this will be a pretty partisan vote," Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden, conceded Thursday, "but we hope it doesn't have to happen at all."
It truly doesn't have to happen. The leaders should change their minds and send the troops home.