Florida? What Florida?
Terry McAuliffe and his party’s dead issue.

January 21, 2002 12:15 p.m.

ack in another era — February 2001 — the Democratic National Committee's winter meeting in Washington was a rompin' stompin' affair. There was plenty of drama surrounding a challenge by former Atlanta mayor Maynard Jackson to Terry McAuliffe, the Clinton moneyman who was a cinch to become chairman. After soothing Jackson's feelings and giving him a big job title, McAuliffe won the campaign for chairman, and he devoted his first big speech to an extended wail about the 2000 campaign. "We won that election," he shouted to an audience made up of party activists. "If Katherine Harris, Jeb Bush, Jim Baker, and the Supreme Court hadn't tampered with the results, Al Gore would be president, George Bush would be back in Austin, and John Ashcroft would be home reading Southern Partisan magazine!" The crowd roared with approval.

McAuliffe promised never to forget Florida. "We will transform the anger about Florida into energy about politics," he said. "We will prove there is victory after denial, democracy after Florida . . . and we will show George Bush the door in 2004!" The crowd roared even louder.

Last weekend the DNC held another winter meeting, and it was a much quieter affair. McAuliffe spoke again, beginning with a statement of war unity with the Republican White House. "We stand side-by-side with President Bush and our armed forces," he said, "in their effort to root out terrorism and make the world safe for all freedom-loving people." After
that brief show of unity, McAuliffe laid out a laundry list of complaints against Bush on the usual Democratic economic themes. He also hit Republicans for "unleash[ing] their attack dogs" on Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. And he whacked White House aide Karl Rove for suggesting that Republicans will benefit politically from the administration's handling of the war on terrorism.

It was a textbook example of current Democratic strategic thinking, in which it is politically permissible to go after the president on domestic issues while declaring solidarity with him on the war. But amid all the attacks on George W. Bush in McAuliffe's speech Saturday, one issue was noticeably absent: Not once did McAuliffe say the word "Florida." In fact, he made no reference to the election of 2000 at all, and mentioned Al Gore just once, almost in passing, when he praised the "values . . . that powered the Clinton-Gore agenda."

Indeed, the disputed election, which was such a crowd-pleaser just a year ago, disappeared nearly completely from the podium on the final day of the DNC winter meeting. House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt briefly urged Democrats to make sure "that the kind of elections we had in Florida and other places around this country last year in 2000 don't happen again." But otherwise, Florida was gone. Even the T-shirt and button sellers didn't
seem to care, beyond pushing a few "Re-Elect Gore in 2004" bumper stickers.

It was obvious well before September 11 that the general public no longer cared about the disputed election and the alleged illegitimacy of the Bush presidency. What was striking about the DNC winter meeting was that it was no longer necessary even to give lip service to Florida when speaking before the party's hardest-core, most die-hard activists. Yes, the war is a factor, but it didn't stop McAuliffe from attacking Bush on taxes, Social Security, Medicare, and other issues. Instead, it seems that McAuliffe and Democratic strategists have realized that after public indifference, a fizzled media recount, and failed books on the topic, there is simply no evidence that even the party faithful care about Florida any more.