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.

[SouthCarolinaKit]

Maybe if this guy could spend more effort on his acting and less on exposing his personal stupidity: using other peoples words instead of his own, he could get his career out of the gutter. Has he been in anything successful lately? Does anyone other that radical leftists go to movies in which he has roles?

[MHT]

Isn't Florida A&M where Allan Keyes was the president? Isn't it a prodominantly black school?

[A Navy Vet]

Excellent! Keep showing your colors Baldwin. Only the most pig-headed ignorant whiners care anything about the 2000 elections. You marginalize yourself and your causes with this kind of behavior. I luv it...keep it up!

[Amore]

Yes Fla. A&M is a black college.

[Amore]

On a somewhat related topic, this morning Brent Bozell was saying something about something awful Sandra Bullock said about Bush. Anybody know what that was? (I find I don't detest enough Hollywood actors yet)

[GOP_Lady]

There's a link on Drudge's site.

[ElRushbo]

somebody post the picture of BALDWIN and clinton that is found at alecbaldwin.com this guy is such a loser anybody have his email address or fanclub address.... can't stand this guy

[battlecry]

That is why I loved it when the Baldwin's house was bombed in the South Park movie.

[Ohioan]

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.

For where "People for the American Way," fit in the ideological confrontation of our times, see How To Recognize The Bigot In The Argument. Perhaps Balwin understands what he is doing. Perhaps Baldwin is just a parrot for cocktail party banter in Santa Monica. Whether he is evil or stupid or both, I will leave to those who follow his career a lot more closely than do I.

William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site

[finnman69]

Let Alec know what you think at

eldorado@eldoradopictures.com

[finnman69]

Company's postal address is: 725 Arizona Avenue, Suite100, Santa Monica, California 90401.

Company can be reached via E-mail at
eldorado@eldoradopictures.com or by telephone at (310) 458-4800.

[marshmallow]

Baldwin may have something mildly interesting to say about cinematic concepts or movie scripts but aside from this, I'm baffled as to why anyone in the media should consider that he has any sort of gravitas on any subject at all.

Does fornicating with beautiful women and remembering acting lines provide him with some sort of unique insight into the democratic process which is denied to mere mortals?

[RogerWilko]

I already checked it, I wanted to blast his commie ass, but it looks like he'll never open up a new one! He knows what he'll get!

[SunStar]

This fathead Baldwin has been shooting his mouth off all week. He's still a damn loser.

[INSENSITIVE GUY]

All i could say to SMARTALEC BALDWIN is that GEORGE W. BUSH won the election fairly and under the CONSTITUTION via the electoral college.Even if he had stolen the election as you claim,I REALLY WOULD NOT CARE as he has proven to be the best man for the job!

[onedoug]

Is that outfit like, some kinda Village People, gay bit?

[Mercuria]

LOL!

Does fornicating with beautiful women and remembering acting lines provide him with some sort of unique insight into the democratic process which is denied to mere mortals?

No. But he's a lie-beral big mouth with money, face-recognition, access to the media, and a message that is simpatico with those who provide him the air-time.

And that's what our free press has become.

[45semi]

His website forum was closed down after he made the comments about how Kenneth Starr should be stoned to death, along with his family members.
I have not, nor will I, watch, pay to watch, listen to, or otherwise give any attention to anything this walking talking t_rd has to say, pretend to be, or any other form of communication on his part...
45semi

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

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

Comatose, illegal aliens....toss the military and the black Republicans votes....the largest segment of discounted ballots in Florida: black Republicans in Dem. precincts. Why these guys think they can keep lying and not pay a personal price I don't know. Convenient not to believe in God, I guess.

[ozzymandus]

Why is this treasonous piece of crap still in this country, and why is he wearing an American flight suit? More importantly, why doesn't some grown-up tell this infantile never-was to shut his whine hole?