Gore's actions will hurt his political future

You just knew there would be a poll that purported to tell us
"how the people felt" about Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris'
Sunday decision to certify her state's election ballots and finally
award the victory -- officially -- to George W. Bush.

Nobody should feel disappointed. Today's establishment media
princelings are nothing if not predictable.

One poll in particular asked if Gore should just concede his loss to
Bush now that Florida and its all-important 25 electoral votes have been
officially awarded him after innumerable counts and recounts -- some in
violation of Florida state law.

Six in 10 Americans -- including more than 40 percent of avowed Gore
supporters -- said yeah, the veep should call it quits. Personally, I'm
surprised the number wasn't higher, but, then again, partisan politics
-- like roaches -- will likely survive nuclear war someday. Like
roaches, there are still plenty of partisan Democrats who will never
concede to Bush.

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Just like their "fearless leader," Gore.

As promised, on Monday Gore's legion of attorneys did precisely what
he said they would do -- they filed a "series" of legal actions on
Monday to "contest," er, "the will of the people (?)" in the
state's courts and made good on

his pledge last week "never to
concede
defeat."

Yeah, yeah. Well, it's really never been about "the will of the people," has it? Gore's pitiful televised lament on national television Monday afternoon reeked of desperation, not logical thought and I even pondered feeling sorry for the veep.

But I didn't, mind you, any more than I would if the tables were turned and Bush was making the same case nationally that Gore tried to make if the tables were turned.

I don't "sympathize" with Gore or "feel for him" because I, like millions of other Americans, realize his ploy yesterday was little more than an extension of his insatiable lust for power at any cost. You know -- like a madman would behave; his plea was devoid of all rationality and it sure as hell wasn't befitting a man who wants to be president of the most powerful nation on earth.

I'll tell you something, though. What I find beautifully ironic in all of this is that Gore -- as a Democrat -- has none of the honor of one of the most vilified presidents in U.S. history: Richard Milhous Nixon.

In 1960, similar "close balloting" in many states led to the possibility of a contested presidential race between Nixon and the eventual winner, John F. Kennedy. Rather than put the country through the kind of crap Gore is putting us through now, Nixon conceded to Kennedy and resolved to come back and fight another day.

He did come back; and he won -- twice.

Democrats like Gore have savaged Nixon for his role in "that thing" known as the Watergate scandal. And rightfully so; Nixon indeed was guilty. Yet Gore and the Democrats have repeatedly shown that similar criticism and standards don't apply to their "no controlling legal authority" defenses when it's their turn to be rightfully vilified and held accountable.

When it was his turn, Nixon did the honorable thing and resigned his office rather than put the country through a messy impeachment.

Democrats never considered such honorability for Clinton during his impeachment -- for multiple "high crimes and misdemeanors" that made Nixon look like a choirboy, by the way.

Instead -- and as is typically always the case -- Democrats savaged Republicans and other opponents for "daring" to "put the country through" an impeachment, though it was Clinton's actions that triggered the process.

And now, it's Gore who cannot even live up to the high standards of a known presidential offender. If Gore's behavior weren't so psychologically questionable and his lust for power so insanely overreaching, some of this delicious irony might be too funny for words.

To even think it is soul-satisfying for conservatives: "Nixon, after all was said and done, was a better man than either Clinton or Gore."

Oh, man!

Critics of Bush have dutifully pointed out that despite his apparent Florida win, his camp too is still filing legal briefs and lawsuits before the Florida state courts and the U.S. Supreme Court.

That would be fair criticism but my guess is Bush would order all suits over military absentee ballots and the case before the Supreme Court dropped if Gore would do the manly, honorable thing and concede his very real, fact-based and fair defeat.

Until Gore does that, Bush has no choice but to pursue continued litigation over what he rightfully believes were slights of state and federal law because -- as the vice president has made painfully clear -- Gore will continue to compete for an office he has already lost. As long as he does that, the Bush team has to respond with actions of their own.

Gore has said he will never concede this race, but as more (amazingly enough) Democrats push him to do just that, eventually he will have to think less about a transition team and more about a moving and storage company. As it stands, he now occupies Dick Cheney's official residence, and we can't have that.

If he doesn't, he can kiss off any Nixonian comeback in four or even eight years because Americans -- witnessing this manic, unstable quest for power -- will remember what the veep put us through in "the wild election of 2000."

Not that I would mind seeing Gore politically isolated and permanently off-limits. Patrick J. Buchanan is probably thinking it'd be about time somebody other than he "won" the title.