While media attention to the new book by Katherine Harris describing events around the Election 2000 vote recount has been strong, so has the spin.
The book, "Center of the Storm," is published by WND Books, a new partnership between WorldNetDaily.com and Thomas Nelson Publishing. In the forthcoming title, Harris explains leadership principles for those struggling through difficult times – something she knows about given the post-election legal landmines she navigated around as Florida secretary of state.
Some of those landmines have resurfaced with the imminent release of "Center of the Storm."
"Katherine Harris says . . . that Al Gore might have gotten a statewide recount of presidential votes if he hadn't decided to 'unleash the dogs of war,'" reads the Washington Post's Monday Names and Faces column, making it sound as if her decision to end vote recounts was more a personal reaction to Gore tactics than a response to the law.
The reality?
The Florida State Supreme Court gave Harris a Nov. 26 deadline, a Sunday. If she decided against keeping her office open, she was required to accept ballots Nov. 27.
Instead of waiting till the last minute to see which day to accept recount totals – to better weigh Bush or Gore's chances – "we announced on Wednesday, Nov. 22 (the morning immediately following the Florida Supreme Court's order), that we would be open on Sunday (Thanksgiving weekend) in order to accept amended certifications so as to permit either candidate the maximum amount of time to conduct a postcertification contest," Harris explains.
None of the recent media attention to Harris' book attempts to reconcile the charge that she supposedly "cut off" recounts with the fact that she was following a court-ordered deadline. Neither do they explain why some of the recounts failed to meet the deadline: "At that time, we did not know that Palm Beach County would choose to take Thanksgiving Day off, which prevented that county's manual recount from finishing. . . ."
The Post spin is especially peculiar in light of its own coverage in "Deadlock," touted as "the first comprehensive account of what really happened in the 'post-election' of 2000. . . ."
As Harris explains, under Florida law, to contest the election results and get a statewide recount, the Gore camp had to allow the vote to be certified, which would have happened Nov. 17, had not Gore's legal maneuvers prevented it. The vice president's hope was to reap higher recount tallies in four choice counties during the short "protest" period before certification.
By preventing the certification, however, Gore closed the window of time allowed to contest the vote after certification. If things had gone his way, no contest would have been needed. Things didn't. "Deadlock" appropriately calls the vice president's move a gamble – one he lost.
Gore was counseled against the move, as "Deadlock" points out:
"Some lawyers for Gore thought this strategy was a mistake. Dexter Douglass, Gore's old Tallahassee hand, believed that they should let Katherine Harris certify the results and go straight to the lawsuit. . . . Better, Douglass felt, to get the whole election in front of one judge with the power to order a recount and set the standard." Gore did not take the advice.
Thus, far from a petulant response by Harris to Gore's "unleashed dogs," the post-election recount hullabaloo more closely resembles a political miscalculation on the vice president's part than a miscarriage of justice and democracy on Harris'.
Keeping up the spin, an Associated Press story carried by CNN.com quotes Al Gore spokesman Jano Cabrera.
"Harris' job was to do everything possible to make sure that all the people who intended to vote on Election Day had their votes counted," said Cabrera. Harris "instead did everything she could to make sure the votes were not counted."
"She was rushing to certify an election for an individual for whom she had already campaigned and was biased towards."
AP let Cabrera's assertions go unchallenged, though they are flatly wrong.
In her book, Harris explains the Catch 22 that Gore's certification-delay tactics had placed her in:
"Imagine the hue and cry if I had violated the court's order, thereby delaying the commencement of contest proceedings by one day or more. Imagine if that loss of time had been why Florida could not complete a recount ordered by a court in the contest phase before the federal deadline. I can envision the headlines: 'Setup! Harris Knew Palm Beach Extension Would Cut Off Statewide Recount in Contest'; 'What Did Harris Know, and When Did She Know It?'; and 'Harris Helps Bush Campaign by Violating Supreme Court's Order.'"
Harris did not "rush" to certify the vote. The records show that she did her job according to the law and the order of the Florida State Supreme Court despite the politicking and gamesmanship that lawyers and consultants – in disregard for the Florida election laws Harris was charged to keep – conducted on behalf of their candidate.
Democrats maintain that Gore would have triumphed in a statewide recount. Perhaps the reality – evidenced by Gore's attempt to block the steps necessary to get a statewide recount by stalling the certification – is quite the opposite.
"Center of the Storm" will not be released to retailers until Oct. 8, but WND readers can reserve their copies now at the WorldNetDaily online store. WND will ship orders around Sept. 10, nearly a full month before the book is generally available. Harris has also agreed to offer signed copies of the book exclusively for WorldNetDaily readers.
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