Clicking on banner ads enables JWR to constantly improve
Jewish World Review Nov. 17, 2000/ 19 Mar-Cheshvan, 5761

Marianne M. Jennings

Marianne M. Jennings
JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase

Mallard Fillmore

Michael Barone
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Don Feder
Suzanne Fields
James Glassman
Paul Greenberg
Bob Greene
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Michael Kelly
Mort Kondracke
Ch. Krauthammer
Lawrence Kudlow
Dr. Laura
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Chris Matthews
Michael Medved
MUGGER
Kathleen Parker
Wes Pruden
Debbie Schlussel
Sam Schulman
Roger Simon
Tony Snow
Thomas Sowell
Cal Thomas
Jonathan S. Tobin
Ben Wattenberg
George Will
Bruce Williams
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman

Consumer Reports


On being a statesman


http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- KENNEDY WON the 1960 presidential election by 112,803 votes. The evidence of fraud was so overwhelming that even mild-mannered Ike urged his vice president to challenge the votes. Most experts felt Nixon had really won by 250,000 votes. Nixon, a man with the fiber of a felon and the vocabulary of a longshoreman, declined to do so because the rest of the world was watching. Democracy doesn't set aside votes.

So strong were Nixon's position and desire to avoid a "constitutional nightmare" that he even asked the New York Herald Tribune to discontinue its twelve-part series on voter fraud. Mr. Nixon was a statesman and a gentleman. In lay terms, he had class.

In the 2000 elections, Senator John Ashcroft of Missouri lost his bid for reelection to the deceased governor, Mel Carnahan. It has been some time since I checked the constitution as well as the plan of salvation, but I don't believe a dead man is a resident of Missouri for purposes of Senate qualifications, although there are arguably a few current senators who push the envelope, definitionally speaking. Further, a Democratic judge ordered the polls in St. Louis held open until 10:00 PM in a close election (the deceased apparently run a heck of a campaign) and those precincts proved a deciding factor. If ever a candidate deserved a review for election impropriety, it is Senator Ashcroft. He has conceded and wants no part of any legal challenges. Senator Ashcroft is a statesman and a gentleman. He is a call act.

History is replete with statesmanship. Even General Cornwallis sent a lackey out with the white flag. Sylvester Stallone learned that five Rocky films were enough. But, shy of a wooden stake through the heart, Al Gore will not go gently into that concession speech.

Mr. Gore behaves as if Jimmy and Bobby just finished a close election for the prom king. The high school cliques are out in full force. There is the Palm Beach coterie, representing the less cerebral of high school, who can't figure out how to vote. There is the Jesse Jackson traveling protest show representing the high school dweebs with marginal causes. The cat fur flies, the claws are out and Warren Christopher has sacrificed his statesmanship to lead the three-ring circus.

But high school elections don't involve the Dow or national security. When Mr. Christopher and Bill Daley (isn't it ironic that someone born and bred in Chicago politics leads the charge on election irregularities?) held their Thursday press conference to rattle their sabers about litigation, the market took a near 300-point dive. Saddam Hussein is gleefully plotting seizing the leadership void moment. Milosevic must be kicking himself for not thinking of trial lawyers as a way around an election.

The spin doctors of l'affaire Monica are out and about. Their facts are as accurate now as they were then. The 19,000 disenfranchised voters, they moan. That figure represents discarded ballots but cannot be equated with a non-vote. Poll workers have indicated ballots are tossed, as 15,000 were in 1996, because others are given to voters who couldn't handle the pressure of punching on the first try. There are too many votes, they say, for Pat Buchanan in Palm Beach County. They don't disclose that third-party registrations there reveal it to be a hot bed of activism, and Mr. Buchanan earned similar numbers in 1996. My favorite spin was that in another county, 312 folks voted Libertarian and there are only 108 registered Libertarians in that county. There's a new general election prohibition on crossing party lines?

The spin never alludes to the long-term implications of Mr. Gore's sophomoric conduct and his minions' rhetoric. Imagine elections decided by the courts that have given us the McDonald's hot coffee damages, found abortion rights in the Fourth Amendment, and imposed employer liability for sexual harassment even when the employee doesn't complain. Judicial intervention makes voting moot. Judicial intervention gives one man power over election outcomes. The dynamics of an election don't permit do-overs, nor does the constitution, spin doctors' theories and assertions aside.

Absent fraud or illegality, and there is no evidence of such here, elections stand.

No one denies that the election was close. No one denies that voters made mistakes. No one denies the recount right in Florida. But recounts in Oregon, New Mexico, Iowa and Wisconsin might also yield different numbers. But this is not a student council election - this is the presidency.

We are in this jumbled mess because Mr. Gore is not presidential material. He not only lacks the stuff of statesmen, he lacks class. Like his mentor president, he finds honor in the ends, not the means. Al of the first and third debate, who wants two closing statements, shoves his way onto the stage as his opponent still speaks, raises his hand too often, and wants a win at any cost has emerged. The cost is high as he plummets markets and makes the United States vulnerable on the world stage. Be a statesman, Mr. Gore.

For once, be a statesman.


JWR contributor Marianne M. Jennings is a professor of legal and ethical studies at Arizona State University. Send your comments by clicking here.

Up

11/13/00: When it's broke, fixing it wouldn't offend the Framers
11/08/00: ELECTION 2000: I SURRENDER
10/27/00: Al in the package? Memo to women: Choosing presidents and husbands
10/20/00: Ten things the gay community should understand
10/13/00: "You Have a Lump."
10/06/00: The government as the pharmacy: Don't
09/29/00: The capacity for truth
09/22/00: Charity with strings and an agenda
09/15/00: The taming of the shrew: Gloria Steinem takes a husband
09/09/00: Why rich folk don't bother me none
08/28/00: Survival of the not-so-fit but conniving
08/25/00: Conventions: A study in contrasts
08/18/00: Resenting the accusations of racial prejudice
08/04/00: Women: Their own worst enemy
07/21/00: Hillary: Our longshoreman First Lady
07/21/00: SUVs: The root of all evil
07/14/00: The basketball gene and white men not jumping so well
07/07/00: I wanna be around
06/23/00: The liberal conversion
06/14/00: Sex and the City: The shallow but vulgar female
06/08/00: No excuses schools
06/02/00: Oh, Canada: Our Nutty Neighbors to the North
05/23/00: The new mollycoddling coach
05/16/00: On adultery and leadership
05/12/00: Taking your lumps
05/02/00: Elian: There's never a liberal around when you need one
04/25/00: Life's circle and tenderness
04/18/00: Womyn who want it both ways
04/11/00: The monsters we're raising with the ergo proposition
04/05/00: Endowing the Hooters Chair for Literature Appreciation
03/28/00: Dr. Laura: The passive/aggressive kid's mom
03/21/00: Dough and campaigns
03/14/00: The volunteerism of conscription and pomp
03/07/00: Hope and pray that religion remains a force in politics
02/29/00: Ditzes in TV Land
02/22/00: Cranky nitpickers make writing a [sic] experience
02/15/00: Those chameleon 60s activists
02/08/00: McCandidate McCain: Flirting with principles
02/01/00: The demise of marriage
01/25/00: Stroke of the pen, law of the land: Clinton's Camelot
01/18/00: Off the Rocker Rorschach Test
01/11/00: Oprah's lemmings
01/04/00: Struggling mightily amidst the comfort
12/23/99: Confused fathers
12/14/99: Drop-kicking the homeless
12/07/99: Turtles and teamsters, side-by-side in Seattle
11/29/99: When conservatives behave badly
11/22/99: Compassionate conservative: Timing and targets
11/18/99: The elusive human spirit and accountability
11/11/99: Succumbing to the intellectual child within with the help of crackpots and screwballs
10/28/99: Live by litigation, die by litigation
10/22/99: Jesse, Warren, Cybill, Donald and Oprah
10/14/99: Inequality and injustice: It's the big one
10/05/99: Dan Quayle, morals and schoolyard bullies
09/30/99: The monsters of epidermal parenting
09/21/99: The Diversity Hoax
09/15/99: Waco Wackos
09/09/99: Selective censorship
09/01/99: The village, the children, judicial imperialism and abortion
08/24/99: Naughty Newt?
08/17/99: In defense of Boy Scouts and judgment
08/10/99: Ruining the finest health care system in the world
08/03/99: Nihilism and politics: ethics on the lam
07/26/99: Of women, soccer and removed jerseys
07/23/99: Not in despair, a mere mortal doing just fine
07/20/99: "Why me?" How about "Why us?"
07/13/99: Bunk, junk & juries
07/06/99: An Amish woman in a Victoria's Secret store
06/30/99: That intellectually embarrassing Second Amendment
06/24/99: Patricia Ireland eat your heart out --- but check out the recipe in 'women's mags' first
06/22/99: Dems and the Creator coup
06/17/99: True courage is more than just admitting troubles

© 2000, Marianne M. Jennings