Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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A Ship of Fools

Friday, December 15, 2000

(Go to the Mullings Update page for the
latest political news)

We need volunteers to join a watch committee set up at Marina del Rey to make sure the people who promised us they would leave the country if George W. Bush becomes President actually get on a ship. The Baldwin brothers - Alec, Danny, Billy, Stephen, Manny, Moe, and Jack - come to mind. Susan Sarandon should be a passenger - or play the role of Julie and go for free.

Rob Reiner and Rosie O'Donnell could go, but Roy Scheider would have to go on board to reprise his line from the movie Jaws: "I think we're gonna need a bigger boat."

Bill Clinton and about a thousand hangers on just returned from yet ANOTHER overseas trip. Shouldn't there be some restriction on foreign travel for lame ducks? How about on Presidential pardons? How about issuing Presidential executive orders? Isn't there some role for the U.S. Supreme Court in this, too? Where is William Marbury when we need him? Or John Marshall.

Speaking of the Courts, Peter Roff showed remarkable judgment in his UPI piece, "Judging the Judges", by quoting the Mullster:
� GOP commentator Rich Galen, is more sanguine, arguing
that only die hard partisans will be really bitter, and that the
storm of controversy [over the Courts' rulings] will soon blow
over.

"The notion of deep anger, such as it is, really exists only
on the wings of the two parties... You are never going to get a
Maxine Waters-type Democrat to agree that Bush is the legitimate
president nor would you ever have gotten a Bob Barr Republican
to admit that Gore really won the election. If you throw out the
two edges, you are talking about the 80 percent of the country
who are largely 10 degrees to the left or right of absolute dead
center where politics is concerned and they are perfectly happy
to see this move ahead."

Galen believes that criticisms of the courts from right and
left will eventually cancel each other out. "It was the Florida
Supreme Court that got the US Supreme Court into this," he says.
In reality "the Florida decision was 4 to 3 and the US Supreme
Court was 5 to 4. If you're going to complain about close court
rulings, you have to complain about both or neither," he says.

Watching the news channels for the past 36 hours has been fascinating. The Professional Chattering Class is abuzz about what George W. is going to have to do to placate the Democrats in the Congress.

Listening to them, if Bush doesn't adopt - verbatim - the Democrats' Congressional agenda then there's going to be some big trouble, boy.

Imagine, for a moment, that the roles were reversed and President-elect Al Gore had to deal with a Congress this closely divided. Do you really think there would be a constant media drumbeat of "What does Al Gore have to do to appease the Republicans?"

Me neither.

In the first election for President only 10 states participated. New York didn't choose any electors, and neither Rhode Island nor North Carolina had yet ratified the Constitution.

More Electoral College fun facts: Since 1956 only four electors have cast votes for someone other than the person they were elected to support.
- In 1956 a Stevenson elector from Alabama cast a vote for Walter
B.Jones
- In 1972 a Nixon elector from Virginia cast a vote for John Hospers,
the Libertarian;
- In 1976 a Ford elector from Washington cast a vote for Ronald
Reagan
- In 1988 a Dukakis elector from West Virginia cast a vote for Lloyd
Bentsen.

Correction: The other day I reported that the Republican National Committee had raised $250 million this cycle. That was way, WAY incorrect. They raised that quarter of a billion dollars THIS YEAR. The Lad was not immediately available for comment.

Mistake: One of the worst ideas I have ever had was that dumb one on Wednesday inviting people to submit their ideas for victory and concession speeches by George W. and Al Gore. At last count, 182 people took me up on it. I feel like a graduate assistant grading midterms for three sections of freshman English comp.
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Copyright © 2000 Richard A. Galen

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