Reply #26: It's what really pissed me off about 2000 [View All]

The court had no real role in the Florida fiasco. They never should have taken the case. The only reason their decision had any real effect is because the GOP controlled the process all the way to the top. They held control in the legislature, and were well on their way to taking legislative action to direct the outcome (basically appointing their own electors apart from the actual election results). It isn't clear there was any ability of the feds to stop them. Then it would have ended up at the federal congress where the Florida results could have been challenged. The GOP controlled things there too and probably would have certified/accepted the Flordia action and Bush would have become president anyway.

I suspect that Gore knew all this and is why he didn't try to fight after the SC decision. Even though the decision was wrong in innumerable ways, the only way to "fight" it was outside of the federal courts and the GOP held all the cards there. What pissed me off, and what pisses me off to this day is that the court SHOULD have stayed out of it so the elected people could have followed this path. THEN they could have been held accountable to the electorate. Here in Florida it could have been of little consequence (they elect Harris after all). But in other states, congress critters might have taken some heat for their votes. What the SC did was to provide the ultimate "cover" for the elected representatives because the vast majority of the population didn't understand the process and realize that their decision wasn't anywhere near the end of the process and in fact was meaningless to it. If the congress had been controlled by the democrats, or even better, the Florida Legislature, this would have in fact borne itself out because Gore would have assuredly gone to those bodies for relief. I dunno if he would have succeeded, but THAT'S where it should have been decided. And in a sense, it is where it was decided, most folks just don't really understand that.