There is a pervasive belief that the Republicans "stole" the election in FL in 2000. If memory serves, the Miami Herald got the ballots sometime after the bruhaha was over and concluded that Bush actually won a majority of the votes, even allowing the most liberal (sic) reading of the chads possible. Of course, that count could not possibly cover the large number of people who were prevented from voting under false circumstances.

What people like Michael Moore and the authors of Buzzflash.com don't seem to realize is talk about the theft of the election or the illigitamcy of the president closes off further conversation. If, indeed, there was a conspiracy to steal the election, we best start packing for Canada or Switzerland right now. There is absolutely no assurance the election won't be equally manipulated in 2004.

That said, one would hope the more reasonable of the conservatives would understand the frustration felt by many on the left. To apply the "shoe on the other foot" standard, wouldn't they be crying to high heaven if Al Gore had won under similar circumstances? Surely they can see how a Supreme Court ruling which goes out its way to define itself as a one-time thing might have a pecular odor?

For my money, there were a number of problems with Mr Gore.

1. He has never been able to shake an image of being a patrician, an elitist. Those who voted for Bush - with all his speaking gaffes, etc - voted for one of their own.


2. The Democratic Party did not offer a clear alternative to the Republicans. But this centrist, pragmatic leaning of the party can be traced at least as far back as Clinton. The emphasis has been on winning rather than being right.


3. And, let's face it, even though he tried to loosen up, the man had all the personality of a doorknob.

The Democrats who declare the emperor a naked humbug, like Mr. Daschle, are declared traitors by their own party. Even the man who has made the most sense to me (name slips my mind) has been strikingly quiet since the beginning of the war.

Our best hope is that the Republicans shoot themselves in the foot as the Democrats did not so long ago. Power corrupts - and boy, are we seeing that proverb proven - but that corruption seems to lead to a certain hubris which causes internal entropy and eventual collapse. What we need to do is to shout Enron & Halliburton from the rooftops til it's clear to the common voter that the Republicans are only good for their pocket books if they belong to the top 5% of the population.

On the dark side, we can hope that Iraq turns into the Republican's Viet Nam. Add a lengthy war, high gas prices, and a faltering economy together, and I suspect everybody but Rush will get the picture.