Prime Time Coup

by Alexander Cockburn

You can tell the Republicans know this is going to look bad in the history books. Why else have they floated the notion that it might be wise, in the interests of civic tranquillity, to put all of Florida's ballots under lock and key for all eternity? It seems that Christie Todd Whitman, the governor of New Jersey, first put the idea up on MSNBC, claiming that a recount of the sort promised by the Miami Herald would somehow delegitimize the Bush presidency. Then Jennifer Dunn, the right-wing Republican from Washington state, hammered the point home by announcing on "Capitol Hill Gang" that "Those ballots are going to be sealed right after the election."

You'll note that neither Whitman nor Dunn entertain any romantic notion that a recount of Florida's ballots would propel George W. Bush into an assured and unchallengeable majority. Florida would assuredly have reflected Gore's popular victory across the rest of the country, by a margin that has now risen to 540,435 votes. A useful article in the Philadelphia Inquirer by John Duchneskie and Stephen Seplow gives us the final official national tally with all absentee ballots counted. According to The Inquirer's review, Gore has 50,977,109 votes to 50,436,674 for Bush, thus giving a margin way wider than that enjoyed by Kennedy over Nixon, which was 119,450.

After all the sonorous sermons about "closure" and "finality," it is slowly dawning on people that this really was an amazingly corrupt election, far worse than the notorious shenanigans in Cook county wrought by JFK's men in 1960. I've already met three people here in Northern California who are eager to travel to an "anti-inaugural" in Washington D.C. to coincide with the swearing in of the beneficiary of the stolen election. The phrase "Republican coup d'etat" is not overly dramatic. There's no need to labor the major episodes, from Secretary of State Harris' summary decisions to the final intervention by Bush's supporters on the Supreme Court, at least two of whom, Scalia and Thomas, should have recused themselves from the decision because of conflicts of interest involving members of their families working for the Bush campaign.

The weeks since Nov. 7 have entirely vindicated the accuracy of Nader's assault on the corruption of the two party system. We've seen Republicans toss aside their supposed dedication to states' rights, same as did Scalia, as he bent his supposed principles to elect a president he hopes will make him Chief Justice. We've seen Democrats equally eager to assert states' rights, while exhibiting absolutely no disquiet about the actual application of states' rights in Florida, meaning the racist efforts described above to stop blacks and other minorities from voting at all. Not enough words from Gore on this.

Of course the real president is someone who hasn't been elected, even by fraud: Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. He'll determine, just as he did with Bush Sr. back in the early 1990s, whether George W. will preside over economic rubble for four inglorious years. Inside that framework how will "bipartisanship" work? Not much. The Democrats want to look combative so they can consolidate control of the Senate and win back the House in 2002. Tom DeLay and Dick Armey aren't too interested either, unless it involves a coalition to hurt the poor, on Medicare or social security.

As for Nader, I wish he'd stir himself more to underline the corruption of the system that permitted the fixing of the Florida vote. Now is the time for the agenda of the Greens to shape up for the next four years, and the Florida coup d'etat is a wonderful kicking-off point.