11/20/00 11:55 a.m.
Lieberman Spins into Oblivion
Covering up the Florida antics.

By Ben Domenech, NRO Contributing Editor---------------btdome@wm.edu

en. Joe Lieberman took to the airwaves Sunday morning on NBC's Meet the Press, and he wasn't a happy camper, to say the least. From the first question on, Lieberman denied, denied, denied. He claimed he hadn't heard or seen the memos or statements that hosts asked him about, and he spun the hand recounts as just one facet of a continuing search for "the truth about Florida."

Let me just say that the vice president and I would never authorize, and would not tolerate, a campaign that was aimed specifically at invalidating absentee ballots from members of our armed services. (Lieberman claimed he had no knowledge of the Democratic Party memo on the subject.) And I've been assured that there were more absentee ballots from non-military voters overseas that were ultimately disqualified. We're all about exactly what you said, having every vote counted fairly and accurately, and I think that was the end aim of what happened with the absentee ballots, and it's our aim as the hand counts go on in these three counties in Florida.

Lieberman also spun the issue of the Florida Supreme Court appeal, claiming that the appeal may not mark the end of the litigation.

RUSSERT: If the Florida Supreme Court says Judge Lewis was correct, the secretary of state was within her discretion not to count the hand recount ballots and she can certify the election, will you then accept that verdict?

SEN. LIEBERMAN: Again, that decision has not been made. On my way to that answer, let me just say a couple of things. The first is, as you know, that Vice President Gore made an offer to the Bush campaign this week, which is: Let's agree to hand count the ballots in the three counties involved, or if the Bush campaign wanted to, do the whole state. And if that arrangement or offer was accepted, then the Gore-Lieberman campaign would not support further litigation. Unfortunately, Governor Bush rejected that, much to my surprise. I think, probably the most disappointing part of the week was that Governor Bush even rejected Al Gore's offer to have a meeting about this….

All options are still on the table with the main aim here being in this extraordinarily close election, closest election for president that we've had in American history — we're ahead in the popular vote. It all comes down to the electoral votes in Florida. The margin between Governor Bush and Vice President Gore today is about 1/100th of a percent of the votes cast in Florida. So every vote has to count. That's our goal. And I think if we feel that that's happened, then the prospects of further lawsuits for us is slimmer.

On Fox News Sunday, Lieberman was at it again, dodging questions and claiming he had no knowledge of the law on key issues associated with the recount. Consider his answer on the subject of military absentee ballots:

You know, I don't know enough about the law, and I'd say that I certainly would not want to — I would not countenance, and I'm sure Al Gore would not, any policy that was aimed at excluding military ballots, and I'm sure that that wasn't the case. My guess is — and again, the Republicans and Democrats with the election officials in each county counting the absentee ballots — my guess is that the officials who had the last word here wasn't Democrats or Republicans. They know that the world is looking at every vote in Florida, and so they decided according to the letter of the law.

On CBS's Face the Nation, Lieberman spoke out on the time factor, claiming that the Democrats are seeking a quick end to this standoff, too; just one where Gore turns out the victor.

We don't want to continue this forever. We don't want to continue it for a lot longer, but we want everybody's vote to be counted…because we want the next president, whoever he is, to take office with a sense of legitimacy about him without millions of the American people who supported the other candidate saying, "We were robbed."

Asked point-blank whether he thought George W. Bush's campaign and the Republicans were out to rob the election from Gore, Lieberman said, "I wouldn't say they were trying to steal the election, but it seems to me very clearly that they are doing everything they can to stop the recounting of votes, because they're slightly ahead and they fear after the recounting they won't be."

Lieberman added that anyone who believes there's anything improper with the hand recounts in a handful of largely Democratic counties — or the disqualification of any overseas absentee ballots — needs to offer solid proof before making any claims.

If you look at these pictures on TV, which I have, you have two election officials — a Republican, a Democrat — sitting right at the table looking at the ballots. It is hard to have fraud there. If they have evidence, they ought to get it to the election officials quickly. Obviously, I would support the fullest investigation of those charges.

Former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh also appeared on CBS, stating his views on the ballot controversy.

I've been an election monitor throughout this country and several countries around the world — and there is no place where I'm familiar with where casting two ballots for a candidate for the same office or saying, 'Gee, I'm not sure I voted for the right person,' is grounds for throwing over the election.

Former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn told CBS that Gore and Bush should be the ones leading the way, not troops of legal representatives. Nunn also added that he believes Gore has few real options left to contest the Sunshine State's election if the Florida Supreme Court rejects the inclusion of hand recounts in the presidential tally after its Monday hearing.

I don't think mistakes on ballots are an abuse. People make mistakes in every election and officials make mistakes in every election and we have a lot of volunteers out there that work in every election in good faith, whatever their political preference. So I think we ought to accept the verdict of Florida within the Constitution of the United States.

Nunn was wise, bipartisan, and unequivocating; everything that Joe Lieberman used to be.

"Everyone is trying to litigate their way out of this. The final analysis, the candidates have to step up to the plate, I think, and basically be the clients that decide the case rather than the lawyers," said Nunn.