Katherine Harris: Gore Fought Against Statewide Florida Recount

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In an appearance on Monday's Hannity and Colmes on FNC, former Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris responded to the HBO movie Recount, about the 2000 Florida recount of the presidential election, as she charged that the movie ignored Harris's early attempt to implement a statewide recount in Florida, a move which was fought by the Al Gore campaign. According to Harris attorney Joe Klock, who worked on the recount case, Gore "wanted no part of" a statewide recount, instead preferring to "count in their four carefully-selected counties," which were predominantly Democratic.

The segment began with a clip of actress Laura Dern negatively portraying Katherine Harris in the movie Recount. Harris responded:

I'm quite accustomed to being mocked in terms of my appearance, but when the truth is so flagrantly disregarded ... we had to respond. In fact, in the closing scene of this film, when two of Gore's lead campaign consultants were leaving by the airplane, they said, "You know, we should have gone after that statewide recount at the beginning." Had the author of this film ... bothered to do the research, then, perhaps, he would have learned that indeed we did that from the very start.

Sean Hannity elaborated:

In a nutshell, you had ordered and asked the Florida Supreme Court, if I recall, and you tell me if I'm wrong here, to order a statewide recount. You wanted them to use uniform counting standards. You did so one week after election day. But it was the Gore campaign that, you know, cherry-picked four heavily Democratic districts that wanted different standards of deciding. Isn't that true?

Klock answered:

We filed that action at 3:00 in the morning on November 15, and by 9:00 in the morning, the Gore people were all over it. They wanted no part of that. They only wanted to count in their four carefully-selected counties. There was such an outrage about it, and then later that day, the Supreme Court dismissed it without prejudice.

Harris added:

If Al Gore had allowed us, and if the Florida Supreme Court had not intervened and rewritten the law, which they're not supposed to do, we could have certified, which is a mere procedural action, and then after that, they could have petitioned any justice for a recount statewide, with uniform standards. And they would have had the time to complete the statewide recount, which we wanted to do.

Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Monday June 2 Hannity and Colmes on FNC:

KATHERINE HARRIS, FORMER FLORIDA SECRETARY OF STATE: I'm quite accustomed to being mocked in terms of my appearance, but when the truth is so flagrantly disregarded -- Joe Klock, who was actually the attorney during the recount -- we had to respond. In fact, in the closing scene of this film, when two of Gore's lead campaign consultants were leaving by the airplane, they said, "You know, we should have gone after that statewide recount at the beginning." Had the author of this film, who was the actor in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, bothered to do the research, then, perhaps, he would have learned that indeed we did that from the very start.

...

SEAN HANNITY: This is too important, now. I didn't see the movie before I interviewed Kevin Spacey, but I did pick up from the trailer and other parts that they had attacked you, and I asked him about that. After seeing the movie, it was so biased and so radically left wing, I want to bring Spacey back and tell him where he was wrong because here's the truth: In a nutshell, you had ordered and asked the Florida Supreme Court, if I recall, and you tell me if I'm wrong here, to order a statewide recount. You wanted them to use uniform counting standards. You did so one week after election day. But it was the Gore campaign that, you know, cherry-picked four heavily Democratic districts that wanted different standards of deciding. Isn't that true?

HARRIS: You're absolutely right. Joe?

JOE KLOCK, ATTORNEY FOR KATHERINE HARRIS: We filed that action at 3:00 in the morning on November 15, and by 9:00 in the morning, the Gore people were all over it. They wanted no part of that. They only wanted to count in their four carefully-selected counties. There was such an outrage about it, and then later that day, the Supreme Court dismissed it without prejudice.

HARRIS: Let me say this very simply. If Al Gore had allowed us, and if the Florida Supreme Court had not intervened and rewritten the law, which they're not supposed to do, we could have certified, which is a mere procedural action, and then after that, they could have petitioned any justice for a recount statewide, with uniform standards. And they would have had the time to complete the statewide recount, which we wanted to do.

HANNITY: But the ironic part is you wanted a statewide recount.

HARRIS: I did. I thought-

HANNITY: You wanted every vote counted. And they're the ones that selected the Democratic counties. They're the ones that wanted-

HARRIS: Well, let me say this. Let me just say this. We just wanted it to proceed in an orderly and fair fashion. That's why I hired independent counsel to assure that. But the key point here is this: Had they allowed me to certify on time, there would have been time for the statewide recount. I was elected to follow the law. I swore that oath. And by doing so, I was protecting Al Gore's legal rights. His political team was concerned that, because of the virtue of that certification, it would harm him politically. So he listened to his political advisers, instead of Dexter Douglass, his Florida counsel, who said that I should, indeed, certify on time according to the rule of law and as the law was written.

—Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center.


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What!? Is this article

What!? Is this article saying the film makers took a "creative" approach with historical events to paint a certain picture of the 2000 election. Color me shocked!

 

"Republicans always get a huge pass on the racist issue. Huck is just another example. Provided they don't start up with the N word, they seem able to pander directly to the racist vote."

-- Chuck Davis, intellectual heavyweight, bigot

... and she pointed out Joe

... and she pointed out Joe Klock is a democrat

oh shock and surprise, Follywood lied

Mental midget Laura Dern acting the role of mental midget (not based in reality of course). Follywood keeps rewriting history to their world view. Thomas Jefferson's life as seen by Follywood comes to mind.

The Demoncrats are going to continue lying through their teeth to the end of days about the 2000 election because it's their only hook into the heads of the tinfoil hat brigade - "We was robbed!"

When will they ever MoveOn? After the impeachment of President Bush, VP Cheney, Karl Rove, etc., etc., I suppose, right?

Was that Laura Dern in the

Was that Laura Dern in the movie? I thought it was her father, Bruce. I always get those two mixed up...

.. and the Gore camp continued to fight a statewide recount..

Gore's position was never to "count all the votes.. and the Gore camp continued to fight a statewide recount.

To the best of my ability to recall the arguments; David Boies (Gore's counsel) argued to the the Florida Supreme Court that the US SC would surely strike them down, if they ordered the statewide recounts. Like a pack of lost hungry wolves, the Florida Supremes rejected Boies advice and did it anyway w/ Chief Justice Wells dissenting.

In the end, Bioes was spot on - the US Supreme Court didn't like it. Big surprise - Gore's team knew it all along.

An interesting piece: CONTESTING THE VOTE: STRATEGY; Gore's Failure to Ask for Manual Statewide Recount May Have Been Critical Mistake. A few excerpts (my bold):

..and Mr. Gore's lawyers never once pursued it in court even though they were invited to do just that during oral arguments before the Florida Supreme Court. Mr. Boies said the vice president would ''accept'' a statewide recount, but added, ''We are not urging that upon the court.''

[..] 

In a question to Mr. Boies, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist asked whether the Florida Supreme Court ordered a broader recount than Mr. Gore requested because the Florida court ''thought that to do just what he wanted would be unfair.'' ''I think that's right,'' Mr. Boies replied.

In the first excerpt, my recollection suggests the NYT spun this a bit. First, it was one of the Florida Supremes who made the proposal that they order a statewide recount. Boies argued that 1. that was not what was in front of them in the current matter, and thus they had no cause to do that, and 2. that they would be overturned above.. 

In the end, the Florida Supreme Court and the US Supreme Court recognized the truth; Gore's position of selectively counting only those counties he desired to count, was not fair, and did not represent the picture painted by the Democrats and the Gore machine - that every vote be counted. Bush won.

Gore sued. Bush won. Had Gore prevailed and won in the courts, then Al Gore could honestly be called the selected president.

Changing the rules

It's a shame Al Gore couldn't be charged with a crime or sued for all the damage he did by refusing to play by the rules in Florida. It was clear that he was trying to change procedures laid out in the law to get the results he wanted.

When you put the clowns in charge, don't be surprised when a circus breaks out.

Shucks!

It was clear that he was trying to change procedures laid out in the law to get the results he wanted.

Why that pretty much sums up what being a Democrat is all about!

And didn’t we all get an eyeful of it in this primary-go-around… and in Florida of all places!

Impunitas semper ad deteriora invitat.

PS: That is also why Democrats are always so interested in deconstructionist judges.

And let us not forget

And let us not forget Washington state governors race. 

Nuke em til they glow then shoot em in the dark.

Mistake

Harris made a mistake when she mixed democrat and truth in the same sentence. Never happen in real life.

 

Old, Retired and glad of it.

Gore

Remember too that in the 2000 election Gore couldn't even carry his own home state of Tennessee.  Bush beat him handily.  What does that tell you?

These scum get worse by the day...

Between the MSM and the Democrats in this country, France looks pretty good about now. How sad is that.

Maybe for the next three or

Maybe for the next three or four years. After that, plan on converting to Islam or moving again.

Truth

The truth to a Democrat is like sunlight to a vampire.

John McCain can't win.

There is no way John McCain can win the Media will not let him. Mark my post. There will be a recount in 2008 and there is no way McCain can win. If he does it will be called stolen, even if the whole map turn red, even California.

No one who should see this

No one who should see this Fox segment will see it. They're too busy watching Recount and re-living the glory days of the right-wing consipiracy. Truth is never as glamorous as the lie.

----

former Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris responded to the HBO movie Recount, about the 2000 Florida recount of the presidential election, as she charged that the movie ignored Harris's early attempt to implement a statewide recount in Florida, a move which was fought by the Al Gore campaign.

Wow.  Good for her - then for asking for the full recount and now for reminding us that she tried to do it the fair way.

As for "ignored", lots of people in addition to HBO have ignored this inconvenient little truth about the Florida election.