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He again was near conceding. Now, after recounts started and were halted, the vice president waits.
©Associated Press
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 10, 2000
WASHINGTON -- Prayer and champagne propelled Al Gore through whiplash-inducing changes in the presidential race. "Years from now, we'll be telling our grandchildren about this," he said Saturday.
As if it was a replay of last month's undecided Election Night, Gore was all but consigned to concession, given one last chance on Friday afternoon, bolstered by a fresh recount on Saturday and then, within minutes, stopped dead in his tracks.
Reporters waited in vain outside the vice presidential mansion for a promised photo-op with Gore Christmas shopping or receiving a holiday visit from Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman and his wife. The news cameras were sent away when the U.S. Supreme Court put a halt to the vice president's last-hope vote counts in Florida.
By the Democrats' tally, Gore and his Democratic running mate, Joseph Lieberman, picked up a few votes on Saturday before the justices in Washington shut down the review of ballots.
"Real progress was being made," said spokesman Chris Lehane.
The high court's ruling hit 23 hours after the Florida Supreme Court granted the recounts and just minutes after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that they should carry on.
A senior legal adviser worried that the U.S. Supreme Court's 5-4 decision raised doubts that the nine justices would be receptive to Gore's plea in the hearing scheduled for Monday.
The legal disappointment collided with a resurgence in support from fellow Democrats who, before the ricochet of rulings, predicted Gore would be forced to concede to Republican George W. Bush by Friday's end.
As vote counters began to re-examine ballots Saturday morning, Rep. Donald Payne, D-N.J., was among many who cheered Gore's decision to hang tough. "If he concedes, he does a disservice to all the people who voted for him," Payne said.
Gore, in a private conference call to three dozen supporters, did not speak about the opposing side, said Ellen Malcolm, president of EMILY's List and a participant in the brief afternoon call.
"He sounded to me very calm and determined. He just thanked everyone for their patience and for sticking with him through all this," Malcolm said.
California Gov. Gray Davis and NAACP president Kweisi Mfume were among others on the line.
As quoted by an aide listening in, Gore told the group:
"Years from now, we'll be telling our grandchildren about this. I think you all will be able to take pride in the fact that, despite great pressure, you fought valiantly for our democratic values."
He interpreted the Florida high court ruling as validation of his belief that "a vote is not just a piece of paper, a punched card or a chad. It is a human voice and we must not let those voices be silenced -- not for today, not for tomorrow, not for as long as this country stands for the principle that the people must be heard and heeded."
House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt joined Gore campaign chairman Bill Daley for a Capitol Hill news conference decrying the GOP assault on Florida's court justices, accused by House Republican Whip Tom DeLay of "judicial aggression."
"Act responsibly, respect the courts, count the votes, and if you don't like a decision, appeal it to a higher court, but don't engage in attack politics against the judicial branch of our great democracy," Gephardt said.
Daley said all the recounts in Florida, whose 25 electoral votes are key to a winning majority in the Electoral College and the presidency, "would have been finished some time ago, if the other side had not taken every conceivable step to stop it."