Well you didn't think it would go to the Supreme Court (see below). Didn't you realize that both campaigns are like pools teaming with sharks? And that the proximity of victory is like blood in the pool? I have to say the Republicans have whipped themselves into Hezbollah mode (apologies to Hezbollah).
The Republicans are likely to win because they have the Supreme Court, Congress, the Florida legislature and executive. The Democrats just have the Executive and the Florida Supreme Court. However, the Dems can fillibuster in both the Congress and the Florida legislature. Gore should have asked for a recount of the whole state right off the bat. Or, irony of ironies, he should have tried to help his party take back the House in 1996 instead of denying a transfer of funds from the Presidential campaign to the Congressional races. (see pages 195-196 in Cockburn and St. Clair's Al Gore: A User's Manual. They source it to Democratic Congressional members. Hitchens also mentions this sorry episode in No One Left to Lie To on page 25, and got the story from a Joe Klein New Yorker piece dated Oct 26, 1998.) Some think Gore prevented the transfer to ensure that Gephardt wouldn't become Speaker and therefore wouldn't be in a position to challenge him in the 2000 race. It would be poetic justice if the Republican House denied Gore the Presidency.
Peter
Date: Saturday, November 18, 2000 2:25 PM Subject: Re: Judge supports rejecting late votes
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Peter K." <peterk at enteract.com>
>
>>If the U.S. Supreme Court doesn't involve itself, I wonder if the Congress
>>will toss its hat in the ring.
>
>The Supremes won't and neither will Congress.
>
>The one alternative, though, is that the GOP-controlled state legislature
>will override any decision of the Florida Supreme Court and will appoint
>their own set of electors, a possibility seemingly provided for in federal
>law covering the electoral college. That will deliver the Presidency to
>Bush, but all partisan hell will break out in Florida and nationally.
>
>-- Nathan Newman