What does the USATodayMiamiHeraldKnightRidder ballot review tell us? Nothing we didn’t already know. We always knew that the margin of victory in Florida was smaller than the margin of error. That’s why the only rational, sane, fair thing to do was to accept the result of the mandatory machine recount and let it go. That’s also why Gore’s attempt to upend that recount in order to finagle a way to a technical victory was so outrageous. He knew there was no possibility of finality here. But his Clintonian win-at-all-costs mentality led him to believe that if he could rig the re-re-recount and finesse the public relations, he still had a chance. When that failed, he could always sit back and preen that he was robbed, stolen, etc. The only good news from this is that it means that Gore will never be able to say that again with any credibility. Nor will Barbra Streisand. Nor will all the other partisans who still insist their election was “stolen.” They will now, of course, rest their hopes on another media recount of “over-votes.” If that fails, they’ll try something else. Gore and his acolytes still cannot acknowledge that, according to the rules of the game, they lost. Period. Their dragging of the country through weeks of turmoil and constitutional crisis was an act of extraordinary hubris and recklessness – in my view, the final, lawless act of eight lawless years. It’s over now, and this is a deeply satisfying exclamation point. The current president is now and has been since November 7 the only legitimate 43rd president of the United States. Get over it.
THE MEANING OF REFORM: There are plenty of people now second-guessing McCain-Feingold. It sure isn’t perfect. The restrictions on independent advertising sixty days before an election is so clearly unconstitutional we can only hope the Supreme Court will knock it down soon. And the money will find a way, of course, to express itself. But the true meaning of reform isn’t and never has been the ‘solution’ of some sort of ‘problem.’ It’s a process of tinkering, correcting, adjusting. All in all, I think this reform makes our system a little less susceptible to moneyed interests than before – and that’s all to the good. The best reforms can only ever achieve that much – and they will need replacement in time. I’m reminded of the paradoxes of this process by a new and superb translation of Constantine Cavafy‘s poetry, which I’ve been devouring in bed getting over a stomach bug. Cavafy, for those who haven’t heard of him, is probably one of the great modern poets – up there with Auden and Eliot and Larkin, in my opinion. In one of his poems, “The Windows,” he shows — damnit: here’s the full poem:
“In these dark rooms, where I go
Through weary days, I wander back and forth,
Looking for the windows. – When it opens,
A window will be consolation. –
But the windows aren’t there to be found, or I’m unable
To find them. And perhaps it’s better for me not to find them.
Perhaps the light will be some novel tyranny.
Who knows what new things it will show.”
Here’s hoping McCain-Feingold isn’t some novel tyranny after all.
The Dish 