| When I landed, I went to see his wife, Sue; Chuck was an extraordinary man who had led our defense team in the Senate with skill and courage
The rest of November was consumed by the Middle East and the Florida recount, which was cut off with thousands of votes still uncounted in three big counties, a result unfair to Gore since it was obvious from the votes that had been thrown out for errors resulting from confusing ballots and flawed punch-card devices that thousands more Floridians had intended to vote for Gore than for BushGore contested the election in courtAt the same time, Barak and Arafat were meeting again in the Middle EastIt wasnt clear to me whether we were going to win or lose either the battle for Florida or the struggle for peace
On December 5, Hillary went to Capitol Hill for her initiation as a freshman senatorThe night before, I kidded her about going to her first day of Senator School, telling her she had to get a good nights sleep and wear a nice outfitShe was excited about it, and I was really happy for her
Three days later, I traveled to Nebraska, the only state I had not yet visited as President, for a speech at the University of Nebraska at KearneyIt was in effect a valedictory address in the heartland urging continued chanel logo necklace American leadership in the world beyond our bordersMeanwhile, the Florida Supreme Court ordered the inclusion of more recounted votes in Palm Beach and Dade counties, and the recount of 45,000 more votes according to the standard of Florida law: a ballot was to be counted only if the intent of the voter was clearBushs margin was now down to 154 votes
Governor Bush immediately appealed to the USupreme Court to stop the recountSeveral lawyers told me the Supreme Court wouldnt take the case; the mechanics of elections were a question of state law unless they were used to discriminate against a group of citizens, like racial minoritiesAlso, it is difficult to get a court-ordered injunction against an otherwise legal action, like an election recount or razing a building when the owner agreesTo do so, a party must show that irreparable harm would result unless the activity is stoppedIn a 54 decision, Justice Scalia wrote an astonishingly honest opinion granting the injunctionWhat was the irreparable harm? Scalia saidThat counting the ballots might cast a cloud upon what [Bush] claims to be the legitimacy of his electionWell, he was right about thatIf Gore got more votes than Bush in Florida, it would be harder for the Supreme Court to give Bush the jumbo chanel flap bag presidency anyway
We were having a Christmas reception at the White House that night, and I asked every lawyer who came through the receiving line if he or she had ever heard of such a rulingThe Court was to hand down another opinion shortly, on the underlying issue of whether the recount itself was constitutionalNow we knew they would kill it 54I told Hillary that Scalia would never be allowed to write the second opinion; he had been too candid in this one
On December 11, Hillary, Chelsea, and I flew to Ireland, to the land of my ancestors and the scene of so much of the peacemaking I had doneWe stopped in Dublin to see Bertie Ahern, then went to Dundalk near the border for a massive rally in a city that was once a hotbed of IRA activity and was now a force for peaceThe streets were bright with Christmas lights as the large crowd cheered wildly and sang Danny Boy to meSeamus Heaney once said of Yeats: His interest was to clear a space in the mind and in the world for the miraculousI thanked the Irish for filling that space with the miracle of peace
We went to Belfast, where I met with the Northern Irish leaders, including David Trimble, Seamus Mallon, John Hume, and Gerry AdamsThen we went with Tony and Cherie Blair, Bertie Ahern, and George Mitchell to prada china a large meeting of both Catholics and Protestants in the Odyssey ArenaIt was still somewhat unusual for them to gather together in BelfastSome sharp disputes remained involving the new police force and the schedule and method of putting arms beyond useI asked them to keep working on the problems and remember that the enemies of peace didnt need their approval: All they need is your apathyI reminded the audience that the Good Friday accord had given heart to peacemakers the world over, and cited the just announced agreement ending the bloody conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia that the United States had helped brokerI closed by saying how much I had loved working with them for peace, but the issue is not how I feel; its how your kids are going to live
After the event, my family flew to England to stay with the Blairs at Chequers and listen to Al Gore give his concession speechThe night before, at 10 p the Supreme Court had ruled, 72, that the Florida recount was unconstitutional because there were no uniform standards for defining the clear intent of the voter for purposes of a recount, and therefore different vote counters might count or interpret the same ballots differentlyTherefore, the Court said, allowing any of the disputed votes to be louis vuitton gm bag counted, no matter how clear the voters intent, would deny equal protection of the law to those whose ballots werent countedI disagreed strongly with the decision, but I was heartened that Justices Souter and Breyer wanted to send the case back to the Florida Supreme Court to set a standard and proceed with the recount in a hurryThe electoral college was meeting soonThe other five justices in the majority disagreedBy 54, the same five justices who had stopped the vote count three days earlier now said it had to give the election to Bush because under Florida law the recount had to be finished by midnight on that day anyway
It was an appalling decisionA narrow conservative majority that had made a virtual fetish of states rights had now stripped Florida of a clear state function: the right to recount votes the way it always hadThe five justices who didnt want the votes counted by any standard claimed to advance equal protection by depriving thousands of people of their constitutional right to have their votes counted even if their intent was crystal clearThey said Bush should be awarded the election because the votes couldnt be counted in the next two hours, when, after already killing three days of recounting, they had delayed issuing the opinion until 10 quilted chanel bags p |