Actor compares 2000 election to Sept. 11-Alec Baldwin says disputed vote damaged democracy

Tallahassee Democrat ^ | Posted on Fri, Mar. 08, 2002 | By Bill Cotterell

[vannrox]

(Contrary to public knowledge, he never served in the Armed Forces.)
FR Comment. IS there some way that he can be arrested for impersonating an Officer?
Posted on Fri, Mar. 08, 2002

Actor compares 2000 election to Sept. 11

Alec Baldwin says disputed vote damaged democracy

By Bill Cotterell

DEMOCRAT SENIOR WRITER

Florida's 2000 presidential election fiasco damaged democracy as badly as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks hurt the nation, actor Alec Baldwin said Thursday.


Baldwin told a Florida A&M University audience that President Bush and his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, are hoping that a wartime "moratorium on criticizing the government" will help Republicans in the fall elections.


Baldwin, a New Yorker, said memories of Sept. 11 have overshadowed public doubts about the 36-day recount of Florida presidential ballots. He said the war makes it hard for Bush critics to remind voters of "this other disaster that we faced in this country - a disaster that ... has done as much damage to our country as any terrorist attack could do, in some ways.


"I know that's a harsh thing to say, perhaps, but I believe that what happened in 2000 did as much damage to the pillars of democracy as terrorists did to the pillars of commerce in New York City," Baldwin said, drawing applause from the breakfast audience of about 200.


Bush spokeswoman Elizabeth Hirst said the governor signed legislation last year providing $24 million in election-reform funding over two years, including $6 million for voter education and $2 million for a statewide registration database. Much of the rest will go for replacing punch-card voting equipment and training poll workers to avoid what happened in the presidential election.


"Florida has moved on and America has moved on," she said. "We've got a president with incredibly high ratings now."


The governor also is running substantially ahead of Democratic challengers in Florida polls.


Baldwin is a board member of People for the American Way, a liberal lobbying group that sponsored the two-day observation of the second anniversary of a mass march on Tallahassee. The march protested the governor's 1999 executive orders that supplanted affirmative action in university admissions and state contracting.


As in a rally at St. Mary's Primitive Baptist Church on Wednesday night, speakers at the FAMU prayer breakfast focused more on the disputed 2000 presidential election than the One Florida protests they were commemorating. Baldwin and other speakers warned that voters will face new challenges this year because legislative and congressional redistricting is changing political boundaries.


He said the White House and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, along with the governor and other Republican leaders, are banking on the news media and voters staying distracted by the war on terrorism.


"When Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon spokespeople say to you, 'Well, this is going to be a long war, we're going to be in Afghanistan for the long haul,' what that euphemism means is that the moratorium on criticizing the government must be extended longer and longer and longer - ideally, beyond the 2002 election," Baldwin said.


Participants in the rally and prayer breakfast included Sen. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, and former Rep. Tony Hill of Jacksonville. The two staged a sit-in at the lieutenant governor's office Jan. 18-19, 2000, demanding to see Bush about One Florida. The sit-in led to a March 7 march of about 12,000 protesters on the Capitol and a voter-registration drive that boosted black turnout by about 65 percent in the presidential election.


Meek said the governor could be in trouble if people "remember in November" what happened two years ago.


"It's like a hurricane, starting like a tropical storm and going to Category 1, Category 2," Meek said. "That's what I feel is coming in November. In this upcoming election, for the first time in state history, we're going to make sure everyone's vote is counted."

---

Contact reporter Bill Cotterell at (850) 599-2243 or bcotterell@taldem.com.

[arly]

He played General Doolittle in his last movie....

woww what a filthy shame!.. This socialist puke doesn't deserve the honor of playing an American War Hero! There goes another good movie that I will never watch!

[arly]

if hollywood wants to cast this clown in a credible roll they should have him play Mao Tse Tung or Karl Marx!

[Argus]

In this upcoming election, for the first time in state history, we're going to make sure everyone's vote is counted."

Convicted felons, dead people, Demonrats also registered in New York, pets.........

[kcvl]

Welcome to the official Alec Baldwin Online Guestbook!

SPECIAL NOTE TO ALL OF OUR VISITORS:

Due to the constant and steady stream of offensive material that has been posted here on my Guestbook, regretfully we are closing the Guestbook indefinitely.

Soon we will reopen the Guestbook in a new format whereby those who leave Guestbook entries must leave their actual email address by virtue of a signature verification that we will install in the near future.

Most of the offensive material has been political in nature. I find that rather disappointing considering the website was constructed plainly as a means to communicate with my audience about my work in films, television and theatre.

Nearly all of the information that has been posted on this Guestbook is misinformation or disinformation, fueled by political extremists whose only goal is to harass and disrupt.

We look forward to reopening the Guestbook in the coming weeks with our new feature that will encourage, and even require, our visitors to sign their names to their entries. ROFLOL!!!

We look forward to the fascinating results.

Sincerely,

Alec Baldwin

[peteram]

This guy is a delusional sack of SH__! He actually thinks this war is really a ruse to divert people's attention from the 2000 election! I suppose next he'll try to find a way to blame Bush for those jets hitting the WTC.

What the hell is a NY'r (with dual residency in CA) doing butting into business in Florida.

GET THE HELL OUT YOU JACKASS!!!

[Howlin]

fueled by political extremists whose only goal is to harass and disrupt.

Er.....um......wouldn't that be HIM?

[WyCoKsRepublican]

I recall in the days of the hippies, and my years in college in the early 70's, the war protestors and and hippies loved wearing military surplus, the more patches, the better. As for Alec Baldwin, I have to admit, unfortunately, his role in Pearl Harbor was good. I also told myself "it's only a movie" and that he was playing a part. Seems he's playing a too-real part by bashing our President and aiding the enemy in a wartime situation...More of the same we hear from so many in Hollywood who have no concept of what freedom is or how it is preserved.....I guess maybe he's been spending too much time with his boyfriend "Rosie O'Donnell..............

[yoe]

Is there anyway someone can volunteer this crybaby for action? He is a disgrace to other actors let alone the USA...I thought he was leaving the country, what happened!

[yoe]

BUMP!

[arepublicifyoucankeepit]

"6 million for voter education"

These idiots that can't color in a little circle or put a checkmark on the correct candidate of their choice should not be determining the future of our country.

More evidence of the dismal results of our public school system run amuck!

[scholar]

Florida's 2000 presidential election fiasco damaged democracy as badly as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks hurt the nation, actor Alec Baldwin said Thursday.

1. Who is Alec Baldwin and why would we give a $*** about his opinions. He makes his living pretending to be something he's not.

2. DemocRATs have been stealing elections in Chicago, New York, and many other RAT bastions since before I was born--a long time ago. Does his concern for the constitution extend to those venues?

3. I am still waiting for him to leave the country. I am sure that he would have a multitude of FReepers to help him pack.

[peteram]

I guess maybe he's been spending too much time with his boyfriend "Rosie O'Donnell..............

Ironically enough, Rosie has praised Bush for the way he has been handiling things since 9/11 (and still does). At least SHE recognizes good leadership and knows the importance of being unified at a time like this.
Baby Baldwin is still too immature and hasn't outgrown his widdle tantrums.

[kcvl]

Er.....um......wouldn't that be HIM?

EXACTLY!

The guy is a freaking NUT!

[Texbob]

What a horses ass, why don't you leave the country like you promised Alec Baldwin? We would be much better off without you.

[peteram]

"6 million for voter education"

Yeah, this is just to teach them how to read the large signs on the walls that say:

"Please ask a Poll Worker if you have any questions or need a new ballot"

[Res Nullius]

"Whoever in any place within the jurisdiction of the United States . . . without authority wears the uniform or a distinctive part thereof or anything simular to a distinctive part of the uniform of any armed forces of the United States . . . shall be fined . . . or imprisoned for not more than six months, or both." 18 USC Sec 702

[JessicaDragonet]

Why in hell does a talking manikin get quoted as a newsmaker?

Fame can be addicting....and Alec is hooked! Even tho his audience has long since vacated the premises...he's still on stage, tap dancing.

Like a lot of other suckers...he sacrificed his career(among other things) on the altar of the democrat party. Guess he'll be in the next load taken to the ash heap of history.

[wingnuts'nbolts]

I never cease to be amazed that these actors with nothing to reccommend thier opinions, get the attention they do. They should be totally ignored as they are not relevent at all. These outspoken self styled opinion makers are a joke, and take themselves far too seriously.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

I think it is arguable that the moronic, tacky, and banal culture of Hollywood has actually caused more damage to American democracy and civilization than the confusion of the last presidential election. Indeed, Islamic "experts" point to American movies as one of the agitating factors which disturbs Muslims with schizophrenic tendencies. But I don't think 9/11 is analogically the right metaphor for Hollywood's devolving liberal impact on Western civilization. If you added up all of the crimes committed by kooks who were just "imitating" what they had seen in Hollywood films,they are more in the order of the Manson Family as a neo-barbaric wrecking crew of civilization. But we don't hear Alec Baldwin criticizing his friends and peers who have damaged America more severely than W. or Jeb ever could. Borrowing their logic, when you consider how many families in the Third World could be fed with the amount of money Hollywood celebs spend funding liberal and socialist politics in this country, their destructive power and impact is staggering. Is Alec raising hysteria consciousness targeted at the right people? Or is this guy just another useful idiot for liberalism and its declining impact on Western civilization?

[mykdsmom]

HEY ALEC............SHUT YER PIE-HOLE!!!

OTOH, keep on yammering. The sheeple of America are starting to wake up and see that these actors are becoming increasingly irrelevant.

They do not even register a blip on the radar screen of life. Family, God and love for both as well as our country is what gets us through when we are threatened and despairing.

You in Hollywood are not our heros, our men in uniform (the ones that have earned the right to wear it Alec NOT YOU) are our heros.

The firefighters and policemen that put their lives on the line are who I teach my children to look up to. Not some narcissistic spoiled brat millionaire that thinks they deserve a forum to spout off their policital brain farts just because they are in the spotlight.

MKM