“If that occurred in another country,” said Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, “people would be taking the floor of the Senate and bemoaning thuggism.” That’s how the Democratic presidential candidate once described the behavior of GOP activists in Florida during the weeks of limbo following the 2000 election, when the GOP was being accused of suppressing black voter turnout. But Kerry’s Republicans were amateurs compared to what some of Al Gore’s operatives did earlier that year, on the day of the New Hampshire primary, when Gore held off a strong challenge from Bill Bradley by less than 6,400 votes. Partway through the afternoon, according to a recent report in the Boston Phoenix, Gore’s campaign obtained exit polls showing Bradley in the lead. So they literally took their fight to the streets: “Knowing that Bradley’s strength came from tony tech havens such as Bedford, the Gore team organized a caravan to clog highway I-93 with traffic so as to discourage potential Bradley voters from getting to the polls.” The Gore campaign’s Michael Whouley was one of the masterminds behind the traffic jam, and he’s so proud of this effort he recently bragged about it at a Harvard Kennedy School symposium. But don’t expect John Kerry to take to the floor of the Senate and bemoan Whouley’s thuggism–he decided to hire the guy instead.