Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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A Million Hits, A Dozen Laughs

Wednesday November 1, 2000

Granted, this is an election year. Granted this is a Presidential election year. Granted this is the closest Presidential election in most people's memory. Granted October was the last full month before the closest Presidential election in most people's memory. But still �

The Mullings website got one million hits during the month of October. Thank you all. It means more to me than I can say.

I spent the day at the MSNBC mother ship yesterday with David Dougherty of the Global Strategy Group as my Democratic counterpart. What with airline crashes and celebrities passing away, we got about four and a half minutes of airtime despite being on the set for seven hours starting at 10:00 am

At one point we thought about storming the camera positions and shouting "Free the Secaucus Two!" But we, um, didn't.

For Part 1 of my report on my excellent adventure, go here.

The national polls continue to show Governor George W. Bush leading Vice President Al Gore. Unlike a week ago, when the weekend polling showed Gore inching ahead in some surveys, not a single poll showed Gore leading Bush in spite of the typical Democratic bias of Friday and Saturday night polling.

In fact ALL the polls now show Bush with a lead. To see the summary go here. Remember this is updated every day, throughout the day as polls are posted.

If you can't get along with Denny Hastert, you can't get along with anyone. The Speaker wrote a stinging letter to the President following Clinton's veto of the Legislative Branch/Treasury Postal Appropriations and Telephone Tax Repeal bill.

"Over the last few weeks," the Speaker wrote, "political posturing has replaced common sense, compromise and solid legislating�" The letter concluded, "Mr. President the American people are more important than politics. I and my team are, and have been, here and we stand ready to get the job done."

The Democrats in the House need a "train wreck" so they can claim the House needs new leadership. Bill Clinton, according to this letter, forgot and was getting too close to allowing the process to proceed.

If ever there was a strong argument for the election of a President who will put partisanship in its proper place, this letter lays it out.

The current thinking up on the Hill is to pass a temporary spending bill for a week or so, let everyone get out of town to calm down and campaign a little, then come back and finish up between the election and Thanksgiving.

Speaking of the elections, as the Electoral College numbers continue to be very close, it is worth looking at what happens if there is a tie - 269-269. This process is covered by the 12th Amendment to the Constitution which was instituted following the election of Thomas Jefferson in 1800 and the unpleasantness involving Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton.

The short answer is this: The ballots will be counted in a joint session of Congress on January 6 - that will be the next Congress. If there is a tie, the House must vote. Who controls the House doesn't matter in theory. Each STATE gets one vote. Wyoming gets the same number of votes as California. Each state caucuses and the majority in the state gets to vote for its candidate.

If there is a tie in a state, then that state passes for that round.

To be elected President, one of the candidates must get an absolute majority of the states - 26. The District of Columbia, although it gets three electors in the Electoral College, gets no votes in this process.

As a side note, the Senate elects the Vice President. But not state-by-state. Each Senator gets one vote with the winner also needing an absolute majority - 51 votes.

If you believe in a meritocracy, you'll love this story. The University of Oklahoma board of regents reviewed the contract of head football coach Bob Stoops following the Sooners' convincing thumping of the Nebraska Cornhuskers last weekend. The university regents decided to give Stoops a raise. Of $825,000 a year.

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Copyright © 2000 Richard A. Galen

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