Newt did not want to get to the White House, especially in that way, but neither he,
nor anyone else, had thus far been able to work out any agreement in the House. If it came
down to his succession and he refused, the mantle would fall to the President pro tempore
of the Senate and the person who had been able to win that post on the first day of the
new Congress, by gaining support from one southern Democrat Senator, was once again,
Strom Thurmond. But his election was a precarious one which could readily be undone by
procedural moves if it came down to that. He was in his nineties, not the most vibrant of
characters at that advance age, of some infamy, and he had sought the Presidency before,
in 1948, as a segregationist Dixiecrat, though such sentiments were long since shed and
buried. 

     That afternoon, as the House cast its first ballot of the day, some changes in voting, the
outcome of much maneuvering since the night before, were apparent. The beneficiary of
this jockeying was H. Ross Perot. As the roll of the state delegations was called, the initial
glimmerings of the change came with Connecticut. Two Republicans and one of the
Democrats had decided to vote for the candidate who carried their state in  the election.
There were now three votes for Perot, two for Clinton, and one for Dole among
Connecticut's delegation. Thus, its vote, split the day before,  went to Perot.

     Delaware followed suite. Although Perot had not carried that state, he had done
reasonably well, and in the interest of trying to resolve the crisis, the lone Republican
member voted for Perot. Four states later, the one Republican and one Democrat
representing Idaho joined together to vote for Perot who had also won the state in
November. 

     By the time the roll call reached Louisiana, two of its members from each party had
agreed to go with Perot and he carried its delegation with four votes to two each for
Clinton and Dole. Louisiana is many things, but among these, it is close to Texas and has
some influence from the oil industry like its neighbor, which may help explain the move. 
Perot had won Maine in the election, and its split delegation next voted two to nothing for
Perot, as well, as did Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota,
Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, and Wyoming. In all, he had won the votes of
sixteen states.

FOURTH BALLOT

DOLE			18
PEROT	 	16
CLINTON		12
SPLIT			 4

     The press described how Dole was the big loser in all of this shake up on the fourth
balloting. He had lost six votes while Clinton only dropped four, but in fact, Dole still had
the most states, and Clinton was now third. But we have come to look forward to such
spins by the objective media.

     Discussion began to proliferate as to the possibility of a bandwagon building for Perot.
Importantly, all of these states were small and the machinations involved were therefore
relatively easier to produce than they would be in bigger delegations. Even though Perot
had run rather strong in states like California, Texas, and Ohio, it would be extremely
difficult to switch enough votes for him to get any of these now, barring some major shifts
in the calculus.

      There were some states in which conceivably some minor shifts could add to Perot's
vote, however. One of these was Alaska, with one GOP member in the House. And
although they were not among states where he ran the strongest, some prospect for such a
shift was being speculated on as being existent in Alabama and Mississippi. Pundits
wondered if he might also somehow pick up states like South Carolina, Rhode Island,
Nebraska, Missouri, Hawaii, or maybe even Arkansas, whose delegation was split two for
each party. If all of that transpired, Perot would have 22 states in hand. To many this
seemed a peculiar line-up of bedfellows. But the situation was as much at the root of the
changes as it was indicative of any bipartisan strength of Perot to pull disparate forces
together. 

     There was also the possibility of some kind of deal being struck with Perot. That might
swing Arkansas to his column in exchange for perhaps a pledge to serve only one term.
Perot might be able to strike a deal with either party in a few states, getting their vote in
House, and conceivably election, in exchange for that state's Senators helping cut off
debate in the Senate and/or vote for one or the other Vice Presidential candidates. Such is
the stuff of politics.

     The second day of balloting, however, would turn out to be Perot's high water mark.
When, rather late that evening, the House cast its fifth ballot, Perot actually did add both
Alaska and Hawaii. The expected arrangement in South Carolina, however, fell through,
and its delegation went three for Dole, two for Perot, and one for Clinton. One might
imagine Strom Thurmond's hand somewhere in that. The final tally on the fifth ballot did
put Perot in the 'lead.'


FIFTH BALLOT
PEROT		18
DOLE			17
CLINTON		11
SPLIT			   4
     
     And as the House adjourned for the evening, and the Senate filibuster continued, the
topic of popular speculation was just how, over night, Perot might be able to pick up the
eight more states he needed to win.
     By the eleven o'clock news hour, one network had it locked in as a done deal. Enough
Republicans would join in supporting Perot to put him over the top. They would also end
the filibuster and allow Gore to be chosen Vice President by the Senate. This was truly a
case of Perot sponsoring a movement for 'national reconciliation.' The GOP interest was in
preventing a re-election of Clinton
     But another network had different information. Dole and the Republicans would swing
enough votes to elect Perot and Perot would use his influence to help get one Senator on
the Democratic side to vote for the Republican Vice Presidential candidate. But only Rush
came close. He fearlessly predicted that on the next day Perot's bubble would burst.

     Newt had not been particularly pleased by the trend that had developed toward Perot,
and so, the leadership in the House determined that there would be only one ballot cast the
next day in the House. If Perot picked up more states on that vote, they at least wanted an
evening before any subsequent balloting to work on the matter. From his perspective, the
'coup' that was being engineered was one against Dole and the GOP. 
     But as it happened, the horse trading vanished into thin air as the Sixth Ballot the next
morning. Indeed, as the Senate filibuster droned on, the House took a deep breath and
returned to square one.
SIXTH BALLOT
DOLE			24
CLINTON		16
SPLIT			10

     Before the fourth day of voting, there were some breaks for Dole, which, in actuality,
can be seen as logical if not lawful. Mississippi and Alabama, both with narrow one vote
Democratic margins, had one Democrat in each agree to support Dole.
     With those two additional votes, Bob Dole should have 26 states on the Seventh ballot.
However, as is very often the case in complex situations, the right hand very often does
not know what the left hand is doing. When voting proceeded on that fourth day, Alabama
passed to lead off the roll-call. By the time Mississippi also passed when its turn came, the
vote had otherwise proceeded as it had a day earlier.


SEVENTH BALLOT (thru Minnesota)
DOLE			11
CLINTON		  5
SPLIT			8
PASSED		2
     Speculation ran rampant. However, the Niagara became a deluge when unexpectedly,
one of the Republicans in Oregon abstained leaving that state deadlocked. When the two
southern states finally voted at the conclusion of the roll-call -- for Dole -- the Republican
standard-bearer was left one vote short:

SEVENTH BALLOT
DOLE			25
CLINTON		14
SPLIT			11

     Undoubtedly, the popular wisdom that night had it, the GOP would be able to put is
house in order and Oregon would come back to elect Dole on the Eighth Ballot of the fifth
day of voting. By this time, however, all hell was breaking loose.

     Deal upon deal, promise upon promise, piled as high as the mortal mind can envision
added up to one shift and abstention after another. A GOP member of the California
delegation abstained as did a Democrat in Texas. In Illinois, one Democrat voted for Dole
while a Republican in Maryland cast his vote for Clinton. A few Perot votes even appeared
here and there, the most significant one costing Dole Montana, South Dakota, and
Wyoming. Oregon returned to the Dole camp, but Mississippi went back to Clinton.
Virginia ended up evenly split as one Democrat abstained. The final tally once more fell
short of electing anyone.

EIGHTH BALLOT
DOLE			25
CLINTON		14
SPLIT			 8
PEROT		 3
     And meanwhile, back in the Senate, the sides held firm, and the filibuster wore on.
Over the next two days, Thursday, January 9th and Friday, January 10th, it was more of
the same. Perot, reinvigorated both in his own mind and in that of the media, was busily
condemning 'politics as usual.' Of course, his forces in their efforts were attempting to
bring about reconciliation, not 'politics as usual' on their part. By the end of the week, the
dust had settled only enough to see a virtual 'go back to go.'


THIRTEENTH BALLOT
DOLE			25
CLINTON		17
SPLIT			 8
     The weary House determined to adjourn for a long weekend, including the Monday
King holiday. By that time, the Senate filibuster was ten days old and going strong. And in
the environment of the heightened partisanship that marks our contemporary politic and
Congress, there was little alteration of the vote other than rather insignificant vacillations
in the balloting throughout the following week. Bob Dole came within a whisper one other
time, but neither did he fall to Clinton's level, nor did Clinton rise very close to Dole at any
time.
     It was being suggested by some that, as the Perot movement grew in the years ahead,
we might see increased such turmoil in Presidential elections, with more cases of House
election. Those would become more volatile as Perotistas won a few seats in Congress.
And, one speculation ran that we would see evolving a more parliamentary type system in
our country. Perhaps the Presidency would be relegated to much more of a role of
administrator, as the Speaker emerged as the more dominant primary minister of policy
and government. A twilight of the Presidency, indeed.
     By Friday, January 19th, and after 21 ballots in the House, nothing had changed except
the noise level. Late that night, with the Inaugural scheduled for the next day, the lights
were burning bright at the White House.
     The top echelons of the party, and the House and Senate Democratic leaders, along
with the Cabinet and the First Lady, were gathered, planning strategy. With the morrow,
Gore's term as President of the Senate would end. So, too, could the filibuster. But the
deadlock would be just as solid with no risk of a Gore vote to tip the scales.
     As the clock struck midnight, the VP, First Lady, Leon Panetta, the Secretary of
Labor, and the senior senator from Massachusetts, withdrew quietly from the room. As
they left, Hillary had begun to mumble something about having to get their stuff out of
there, but paused in mid-sentence as the group stopped in their tracks in the hallway,
almost as one. They looked at one another.
 	"You can't let the country suffer what will happen tomorrow 
	with no one elected to take the oath. And we can't let Newt 
	seize power,"
Reich said, and added:
	"Bill has to stay until this crisis it resolved."
     	"There really is no alternative," 
echoed the Senator. 
	"We did get the most votes . . ."
entered Hillary Clinton pregnantly.
	"You think the Joint Chiefs . . ."
Gore began, but he was interrupted with a retort of "No!" uttered emphatically by 
Kennedy.
	"Mrs. Clinton,"
said Reich, standing up with shoulders back, fighting obvious fatigue and frustration,

	"You have to go in and ask the President to join us alone for a few minutes."
     She stood there for a moment and then nodded, turning to go back down the hall.
	"Can he do it?,"
Reich asked rhetorically.
	"Will he do it?,"
responded Gore.
	"He will," 
replied the Senator,
	"or else you will have to, Al."
     They headed for the Oval Office to await the President's arrival, talking about what he 
would have to say in a matter of hours as they waited.
	"There's not a damn thing they can do about it,"
Panetta announced quietly, just as the door opened.
     They stood up.



NOTE: The 1996 election obviously did not turn out precisely
this way, but the actual results were not so far from this
outcome as might be thought. It is offered as an examination
of the process and the constitutional crisis that we only
nearly avoided. 


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