- As George W. Bush handed further key government posts
to hardline Republican right-wingers, an unofficial recount of votes in
Florida appeared to confirm that Bush lost the US presidential election.
-
- Despite the decision by the US Supreme Court to halt
the Florida recount in the contested counties, American media organisations,
includ ing Knight Ridder - owner of the Miami Herald - have commissioned
their own counts, gaining access to the ballots under Freedom of Information
legislation. The result so far, with the recounting of so-called 'undervotes'
in only one county completed by Friday night, indicates that Al Gore is
ahead by 140 votes.
-
- Florida's 25 electoral college votes won Bush the presidency
by two seats last Monday after the Supreme Court refused to allow the counting
of 45,000 discarded votes. But as the media recount was suspended for Christmas,
the votes so far tallied in Lake and Broward counties have Gore ahead in
the race for the pivotal state, and hence the White House.
-
- Gore's lead is expected to soar when counting resumes
in the New Year and Miami votes are counted. In a separate exercise, the
Miami Herald commissioned a team of political analysts and pollsters to
make a statistical calculation based on projections of votes by county,
concluding that Gore won the state by 23,000.
-
- The media initiative is likely to bedevil Bush in the
weeks to come, thickening the pall of illegitimacy that will hang over
his inauguration on 20 January.
-
- It has already led to a face-off between almost all the
news media organisations in the state and Bush's presidential team. In
the most extreme example of the Bush camp's desperation to avoid a recount,
the new director of the Environment Protection Agency, Christine Todd Whitman,
has proposed that the Florida ballots be sealed for 10 years.
-
- Bush's spokesman Tucker Eskew dismissed the recount as
'mischief-making' and 'inflaming public passions' while his brother, Florida
governor Jeb Bush, accused the papers of 'trying to rewrite history'.
-
- Meanwhile, Bush made his boldest ideological statement
yet with the appointment of John Ashcroft as Attorney General.
-
- The appointment is especially significant, because as
head of the Justice Department Ashcroft would be the man to bring any felony
charges against President Bill Clinton over the Lewinsky affair. During
the scandal, Ashcroft was among the loudest and shrillest voices for impeachment.
-
- There have been many calls to President-elect Bush to
pardon his predecessor as a sign of peace, but he made a point of rejecting
them.
-
- Ashcroft lost his Missouri Senate seat to the widow of
the state's popular Democrat governor, Mel Carnahan. From the family of
a Pentacostal minister, he is an outspoken social conservative and an ally
of the extremist Pat Robertson.
-
- Ashcroft represents a host of militant committees and
activist groups, of which the Christian Coalition is most prominent. He
is an opponent not only of abortion but even - as he said in one speech
- of dancing.
-
-
-
-
- MainPage
http://www.rense.com
-
-
-
- This
Site Served by TheHostPros
|