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Jewish World Review Nov. 7, 2000 / 9 Mar-Cheshvan, 5761

Chris Matthews

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Consumer Reports


A real electoral horror show


http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- READY for a real electoral horror show?

America wakes up tomorrow morning to a wistful George W. Bush, who's just been elected the most popular man in the country but has failed to win 270 votes in the electoral college. At the Al Gore headquarters in Nashville, spokesman Chris Lehane calls Governor Bush's 2 million-vote edge in the national balloting a "constitutional irrelevancy."

Want more?

The Democrats pick up six seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, giving them a 218-217 majority. But it's the Republican party that lays claim to victory. Democrat Jim Traficant of Ohio has promised to cast his decisive vote for the current Speaker, Dennis Hastert of Illinois, thereby giving the Republicans control of the "People's House" for another two years.

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Thanks to their victories in Florida, Delaware, Montana, Minnesota, Washington State and Missouri today, the Democrats hold 50 senate seats in the next Congress. The stickler is that one of the victors is not among the living. When governor Mel Carnahan died in a plane crash too close to the election for Democrats to nominate a substitute, the party told his supporters that a vote for Mel would allow his former lieutenant governor, since sworn in as governor, to name the deceased's widow to the senate.

There's an obstacle to the Missouri Democrats' "I see dead people" scenario. It's the U.S. Constitution's provision that "No person shall be a Senator who ... shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state."

There's a word for a dead person said to "inhabit" a place. Are the majority Republicans ready to yield control of the U.S. Senate based upon the election of a ghost?

As warned above, even the election of a ghost to the U.S. Senate tonight might not be the week's wildest news. Al Gore, knowing him as we do, may have no problem taking the presidential oath after losing the popular vote to George W. Bush. He's lost popularity contests before. But how will the country take it?

How will a populace already turned off to politics react to the news that the guy who's gotten the most votes isn't getting the job?

We're not looking at political science fiction here. Bush is leading in the national polls, Gore in the demographic motherlodes of California, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania and Michigan. Bush could easily outpoll Gore nationally, just as Gore could well outpoll Bush in enough states to win in the electoral college.

On Capitol Hill, the horrid "Traficant scenario" is also plausible. The race for control of the House is just that close. Democrats need a seven-seat pickup to beat the Republicans plus Traficant. This counter thinks they may be just a vote or so shy.

And the people of Missouri -- mock them if you dare! -- are poised to see their dead man walking next tonight. Asked by pollsters to cite their preference for U.S. senator, most "likely voters" are naming a guy who, for all his past public service, is as dead as Julius Caesar.

So get out and vote today, then settle back with Coke and chips for a long election night that could well be capped by one helluva midnight spook show.



JWR contributor Chris Matthews is the author of Hardball. and hosts a CNBC show of the same name. Send your comments to him by clicking here.

Up

10/31/00: The big lie: Every vote counts
10/17/00: Play White House admissions officer
10/11/00: Scandalous lack of awe for the office
10/03/00: Bush-Gore and the ghosts of Kennedy-Nixon
09/26/00: Candidates' night and day sides
09/19/00: Hillary goes legit
09/12/00: AlGore's silent partner
08/23/00: Truth and beauty in Bubba's farewell
08/16/00: The nation's prom king
08/07/00: The good soldier
08/02/00: Welcome to Philadelphia --- we had the first...
07/31/00: Bush-Cheney ticket: A constitutional problem
07/26/00: If Bush is an IPO, Gore is a store
07/24/00: Will being 'better' sink Hillary?
07/19/00: Pre-convention calm?
07/17/00: AlGore is executing a double dose of imitation 07/10/00: Mexicans elect a Bush Republican
07/10/00:Another kind of McCarthyism
07/06/00: How Bubba's teapots clang
07/03/00: AlGore's latest hazard
06/29/00: No echoes in this presidential choice
06/26/00: Death joins the debate
06/21/00: Jerry Brown tells AlGore how to 'wage' campaign
06/19/00: Squishy logic for soft money
06/15/00: Citizen Kane, 113 years later
06/12/00: Kennedy-Nixon redux?
06/07/00: Bush says 'I do' to reality
06/05/00: Clinton's odd silence on his achievements
06/02/00: Pelosi, a voice for human rights
05/30/00: Bubba's escape hatches
05/23/00: Who typifies leadership?
05/19/00: Bubba's legacy involves AIDS
05/16/00: Dubyah's outlook for 'playoffs' remains perilous
05/11/00: Giuliani's travels
05/09/00: A Yale degree, a Bob Jones education
05/03/00: Show of force!
05/01/00: Abortion polls don't reflect reality
04/28/00: Bill Russell and American racism
04/24/00: Vietnam 25 -- The good, bad and ugly
04/19/00: Nader's threat to Gore in California
04/17/00: Berkeley politician visits with Elian's father
04/14/00: Clinton and the Castro curse
04/11/00: Men who saved Elián from the sea
04/06/00: Caine should coach politicians
04/03/00: No. 2 spots: Woman-to-woman?
03/29/00: Gray for veep and Gore might coast to victory
03/27/00: The secret life of a CIA wife
03/22/00: 'We're suckers for underdogs'
03/20/00: Bush's California dream vs. reality
03/06/00: Scary Gore vs. hopeful Bush
03/06/00: McCain's appeal to 'Reagan Democrats'
03/01/00: John McCain fits a hero's profile
02/28/00: Grading the American presidents
02/25/00: Clinton remains No. 1 issue
02/23/00: Will Ross Perot aid POW McCain?
02/18/00: McCain faces fury of GOP establishment
02/17/00: Citizen Springer
02/14/00: McCainia and the frisky independents
02/07/00: A prime-time primary for California
02/02/00: Clinton's final campaign: Take the blame
01/31/00: Which GOPer is willing to pay for his positions?
01/27/00: John McCain's gay radar
01/25/00: This time, candidates get 'authenticity' check
01/18/00: AIDS dooms 1 in 4 in tiny Swaziland
01/13/00: Complacency might be the campaign key
01/10/00: A choice, not an echo
01/06/00: The role of a lifetime
01/03/00: Dangers in Gore's dirty war
12/30/99: Churchill's fighting words saved the century
12/28/99: Candidate Gore's separation anxiety
12/17/99: Catch 22: Leading candidates don't lead
12/17/99: New Democratic leader on the horizon
12/15/99: Is Hillary clueless?
12/08/99: Taking Buchananism to the streets
12/03/99: Why are we so obsessed with 'spin'?
12/01/99: Donald Trump, 'Sinatra of Steel'
11/29/99: Why AlGore will be our next president
11/23/99: After the fall
11/17/99: Our conveniently forgetful president
11/15/99: Next president: Male, WASP, self-selected
11/10/99: Backroom Bill
11/08/99: Please don't feed the 'pander bears'
11/03/99: Battle of the Bubba clones
11/01/99: Pat Buchanan, kamikaze candidate
10/27/99: The year of the woman... voter
10/25/99: The Curse of the Bubba
10/21/99: GOP gives Clinton his finest hour
10/18/99: Clinton's last hurrah
10/13/99: Rough seas for Capt. Ventura
10/11/99: Gore targets Bradley's strength
10/06/99: Bradley's got the right Rx
10/04/99: Buchanan, Churchill and Hitler
09/30/99: Who'll spin political gold in Golden State — Gore or Bradley?
09/27/99: Here's a millennial checklist for candidates
09/22/99: The biography battle
09/20/99: Buchanan's new book is a must-read
09/15/99: Don't rule out Beatty
09/13/99: The man with the sun on his face
09/08/99: W. vs. Jr. on dope and the draft
The FALN: Hillary's Willie Horton
08/26/99: Bill's guilt fuels Hill's race
08/25/99: The seemingly inexhaustible strength of America's free enterprise
08/23/99: GOP candidates are weak also-rans
08/16/99: Bubba on Bubba
08/11/99: Hillary's agonizing attempts to understand
08/09/99: With warm regards, Richard Nixon
08/04/99: Weicker: real third party is on the Left
08/02/99: Dubyah's last hangover
07/27/99: Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh; capitalism is gonna win

© 2000, NEA