U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks, who rejected the Bush campaign's call for an injunction against manual counts of Florida ballots, was a modest but consistent contributor to Democratic candidates -- including Al Gore -- prior to going on the federal bench in 1997. A member of a Miami law firm that included future Attorney General Janet Reno, Middlebrooks contributed $260 in 1979 to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's unsuccessful campaign for president. His 26 subsequent contributions over the next 17 years included support for failed presidential campaigns of Sen. Joseph Biden (1988) and Sen. Bob Kerrey (1992).
Middlebrooks gave $250 to Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential candidacy and $500 to the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign. His record shows one Republican donation: $250 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 1996, a year before the Republican-controlled Senate confirmed President Clinton's nomination of Middlebrooks as a federal judge.
HARD-LINE REPUBLICANS
WASHINGTON -- House Republican leaders in Washington, unhappy with George W. Bush's strategy in Austin, are pleading for a tougher line on the presidential election count.
The congressmen want Bush to go beyond Florida's borders by demanding recounts in other states where Al Gore has a slender lead: Iowa, Wisconsin, New Mexico and Oregon. Capitol Hill Republicans contend that Vice President Gore will do anything to win and that Gov. Bush must respond in kind.
Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, the chief deputy House Republican whip and a rising GOP star, is in the forefront of the hard-liners. Blunt from the start opposed a constitutional challenge of the late Gov. Mel Carnahan's election in his state's U.S. Senate election, but takes a different posture in the presidential dispute.
GOP DEFECTOR
If George W. Bush winds up as president, veteran Republican Rep. Connie Morella can expect no favors from the White House. She intends to vote for Al Gore in the unlikely event that a deadlocked Electoral College throws the election to the House of Representatives, breaking the 4-to-4 Republican-Democratic tie in the Maryland House delegation.
Bush campaign aides in Austin were incredulous when they read in Wednesday's Baltimore Sun that Morella intended to vote for Gore because her Washington suburban congressional district overwhelmingly supported the vice president. A telephone call was made to Morella's office, and the newspaper account was confirmed.
Morella usually wins easily in her heavily Democratic district, but on Nov. 7 recorded a surprisingly low 53 percent. Her newly precarious political situation wins her no sympathy from the Bush camp, however. Gov. Bush's political aides promise a very cold shoulder from Bush if he is elected president.
SAVING MONEY?
Congressional budget experts estimate that by deferring final action on the budget for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, Congress saves an estimated $55 million a day.
Because total federal budget authority is authorized until Dec. 4 at a rate no higher than the level of the previous fiscal year, higher spending passed by Congress does not go into effect. The total reduction for the entire fiscal year would be $20 billion.
A footnote: Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, the Appropriations Committee chairman branded by reformers as a major instigator of pork barrel spending, has been swamped. Before Congress quit for the election, Stevens privately complained he could not keep up with the spending desires of both Republican and Democratic colleagues.
DETHRONING THE KING
Rep. Bud Shuster of Pennsylvania, undisputed king of pork on Capitol Hill, not only loses his power base as Transportation Committee chairman in the next Congress, but has been kicked off the Republican Steering Committee that governs party affairs in the House.
A 12-to-11 vote Wednesday of House members from Pennsylvania, Ohio and Delaware ousted Shuster as their regional Steering representative. Shuster's fellow Pennsylvanians stuck with him, but the congressmen from the other two states wanted the post passed around and voted instead for Rep. Ralph Regula of Ohio.
A footnote: While forced to surrender his Transportation chairmanship under term limits on chairmen imposed six years ago and confirmed Wednesday, Shuster will still try to direct highway outlays -- and perhaps the entire committee -- as chairman of its surface transportation subcommittee.
With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff
For the story behind the story...
Sunday November 19, 2000; 2:51 PM ET
As Gore Tally Lags, Broward Loosens Recount Rules
Amid reports that hand recounts in four heavily Democratic Florida counties were not yielding enough new votes for Al Gore, election officials in populous Broward county decided Sunday to loosen the rules in favor of the vice president.
"The (election) board said Sunday that it would consider the ballots with dimple, pregnant chads or otherwise questionable chads," reported the Associated Press about the rule switch. Previously Broward County had counted ballots only where at least two corners of the ballot chad had been dislodged.
The decision to liberalize the rules came after Circuit Court Judge John Miller warned Friday that he would order the change himself "if they did not examine the ballot to see if a voter's intent could be determined."
After the rule change was announced, Broward GOP chairman Ed Pozzuoli complained, "The Gore campaign wants to lower the bar because it needs more votes."
With nearly half of Broward's 609 precincts counted by midday Sunday, election canvassers had uncovered just 85 new votes for the vice president.
Counters had set aside questionable ballots since Broward's recount began Friday, which could now be reviewed under the new standards and added to the Gore total.
On Sunday morning, the New York Daily News and the Dallas Morning News reported that Florida's hand recounts were not producing enough new Gore votes to overcome Bush's 930 vote lead.
Ignore the Court: Harris Should Certify Bush
Christopher Ruddy
Sunday, Nov. 19, 2000
Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris needs to comply with Florida state law and certify Gov. George W. Bush the winner of the Florida election, without delay.
If she doesn’t, I fear that Bush has lost his best chance to gain the presidency, which he fairly and squarely won.
Time and delay favor Gore.
The notoriously partisan Democratic Florida Supreme Court understands this point.
This is why the court issued an injunction Friday to stop the certification of Bush this weekend.
Harris has every right to follow the explicit instructions of Florida law, which state that she is to certify the winner on Saturday afternoon after the count of the absentee ballot.
The Florida Supreme Court, whose duty is to interpret the law, overstepped its bounds by ordering the secretary of state to break the law.
The secretary of state should ignore this judicial intrusion into her jurisdiction.
If it has a problem with her certification, the Supreme Court can attempt to overrule her decision, but what penalty can it impose on her for complying with Florida law?
The truth is that once Bush is certified the winner, it will be very difficult to overturn the result. Pressure will likely mount for Gore to concede.
If Harris takes the initiative and certifies Bush, I believe most Americans will rally around her for bringing an end to this national nightmare.
The Democrats and the liberal media know Harris has the power within her hand to bring this matter to a conclusion and end Al Gore’s gambit to steal the presidency.
This is why the Gore people are making not-so-veiled threats to investigate Harris, why they are making wild accusations against her and the major media has been demonizing her.
They fear her, so, following Carville’s advice, they are attempting to destroy her.
The Bush camp and Harris have nothing to lose and everything to gain by having Bush certified pursuant to Florida law.
Gore has everything to gain by having the Supreme Court of Florida delay and likely vote in favor of including the manual recount.
Republicans May Need to Bypass Supreme Court
Jack Thompson
Sunday, Nov. 19, 2000
If the Florida Supreme Court, sometime after Monday's hearing, decides that the unfairly chosen and fraudulently hand recounted votes from three Democrat counties must replace the ones counted by machine, then we shall have a constitutional crisis. Two branches of government – the executive in the person of Secretary of State Katherine Harris and the judiciary in the persons of seven robed Justices – will disagree about which vote-counting method should be used.
What, then, do we do? The forces of good, in this case the Republicans, must deepen the crisis. But will they? In the Orient, it is said that "a crisis is an opportunity." Oh, what an opportunity the Republicans have.
To do what? To take back the Constitution from those who have for two hundred years called it a "living document" and thus a document whose plain words are to be rendered nearly meaningless by judicial activism and attempts, primarily by the judicial branch, to remake America in its own image.
The Republican Party can remake America in the Founders' image by applying the law.
Title 3, Section 1 of the United States Code, enacted by Congress, states the following:
The electors of President and Vice President shall be appointed, in each State, on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, in every fourth year succeeding every election of a President and Vice President.
What was the date for appointment of the electors to the Electoral College this year? Answer: November 7, election day.
Title 3, Section 2 then states:
Failure to make choice on prescribed day
Whenever any State has held an election for the purpose of choosing electors, and has failed to make a choice on the day prescribed by law [again, November 7], the electors may be appointed on a subsequent day in such a manner as the legislature of such State may direct.
We are presently in the midst of a "subsequent day" and will be until the electors are appointed.
The liberal/activist Florida Supreme Court has given the Republican Party, and with it George W. Bush, an unintended gift: By ordering, on its own motion, the Secretary of State not to certify the election this past Saturday, the high court has ordered a failure to appoint the electors.
The ordered failure triggers the fail-safe mechanism. The "default setting" chosen by Congress is the Florida Legislature, which is overwhelmingly Republican by a nearly 2-1 margin in both the House and the Senate.
Therefore, should the Florida Supreme Court do the wrong thing and order Secretary of State Harris to certify the election using the fraudulently obtained votes, she can do, under law, what I recommend she do: Refuse to certify the election for Gore and turn the matter over to the Florida legislature. This will then both deepen the constitutional crisis and resolve it at the same time.
But only if the Republicans have what in South Florida we call "cajones."
What can the Florida Supreme Court do to stop Secretary Harris and the Florida legislature from playing out the above scenario? Well, they can hold Secretary Harris in contempt of court and order her jailed until she complies with its order, an order that will itself violate the state elections statute.
But who heads the state police in Florida, the police that would arrest her? Why, that would be Gov. Jeb Bush.
Mel Brooks said in "The History of the World": "It's good to be the king." And it is, right now, good to be the governor.
As Hitler blitzed through Europe, the Pope complained. Word of his complaint got back to Hitler. Hitler's response: "How many divisions has the Pope?"
The Florida Supreme Court has no divisions. The governor does. The difference this time around is that it's the Florida Supreme Court that has the power to blitz the Constitution.
Go ahead, Supreme Court: Make our day! You will, if you try to steal an election, rob yourself of the power of your robes.
