Posted on 11/06/2002 6:31:09 AM PST by veronica
Their strategy to make the GOP pay for Florida backfired — big time.
Republican Jeb Bush wins reelection in the Florida governor's race by a near-landslide. Republican Katherine Harris wins a House seat from Florida's 13th Congressional District by a wide margin. Republican Tom Feeney decisively wins a seat from Florida's new 24th District.
All three were key figures in the 2000 Florida recount: Bush, the Republican governor whose brother was running for president, Harris, the Republican secretary of state, and Feeney, the Republican speaker of the state house of representatives who pressed for George W. Bush electors to be sent to Washington. They all came under ferocious attack from Democrats, who vowed to make them pay for "stealing" the election from Al Gore. And now all three are winners.
One of the major themes of last night's vote count was the complete failure of the "Florida anger" strategy as a motivating force for Democrats. It didn't work in Florida, and it didn't work around the country.
In February 2001, in a Washington hotel ballroom, Terry McAuliffe, the newly elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, gave a speech that worked a crowd of party workers into a near-frenzy. "We will transform the anger about Florida into energy about politics," McAuliffe said, his voice rising to a shout. "We will prove there is victory after denial, democracy after Florida, Daschle after Lott, Gephardt after Hastert, and justice after the United States Supreme Court. We will give the American people a Congress they can be proud of, and we will show George Bush the door in 2004!"
The anger in the room that day bordered on the irrational. And so did McAuliffe's strategy. Driven by his own and his top aides' frustration over Florida, McAuliffe made defeating Jeb Bush his party's number one goal. Doing that, he believed, would have a "devastating" effect on George W. Bush and help Democrats win the White House two years from now. Just last Sunday, McAuliffe flatly predicted that Jeb Bush would lose and said, "We are going to win Florida, which is going to set us up very nicely for 2004."
At the same time, McAuliffe devoted an enormous amount of his time and his party's resources to voting-rights issues. Democrats lavished money on the party's newly created Voting Rights Institute and, in the days leading up to the election, worked furiously to raise Florida-style allegations of voter intimidation in races across the country.
For example, yesterday afternoon, in a telephone briefing with reporters, DNC legal counsel Jack Young described what he said were widespread Republican efforts to scare voters away from the polls. "The Republicans know as well as we do who won the popular vote in 2000," Young said. "I think the Republicans are afraid as all get-out that if all Americans vote, they lose." The GOP, Young said, "clearly stands for restricting the right" to vote.
On Monday, McAuliffe released a statement alleging GOP voter intimidation in Maryland, Texas, and New Hampshire. "Mr. President, do not let our election process fall prey to dirty political shenanigans once again," he said. "Tell your Republican party operatives to cease their voter intimidation practices and let Americans exercise their right to vote free of harassment and intimidation." A week before that, McAuliffe had released another statement alleging GOP misconduct in Arkansas, Florida, and Missouri. And a week before that, he accused Republicans of creating a "high level of disenfranchisement."
It was, in the end, a disastrous strategy. Obsessed with Florida, McAuliffe spent more time talking about the right to vote — and imagined Republican efforts to suppress it — than what Democrats might want to vote for. Defeating Jeb Bush wasn't a big enough idea.
And besides, if McAuliffe had achieved his number-one goal, how would that have helped the national party? If you were DNC chairman, would you rather hold the United States Senate or the Florida governor's mansion? McAuliffe chose the latter. Now he has neither.
And soon, he might not have his job. The Democrats' decisive losses will most likely mark the final act of the 2000 Florida controversy as a serious factor in party strategy. It is hard to see how McAuliffe, who was so closely identified with that strategy and is now a loser, can remain in his post.
One last thing. Remember Carol Roberts? She was the Gore-supporting Palm Beach county commissioner who, during the 2000 recount, aggressively tried to steer the ballot counting in a Democratic direction. This time, she challenged the Republican incumbent for a House seat in Florida's 22nd District. She lost.
McAuliffe has now learned the danger of believing your own propaganda.
We want it all ... we want it all ... we want it all ... we want it now.
Hail to the chief! Our Republic wins a respite for its survival. Let's never allow it to drift so close to social and fiscal anarchy again.
The head Rats were wrong about the election 2000. Republicans know that President Bush (and Florida voters) were cheated by the Dem.-press lies and fraud. Most of us believe that President Bush won the honest popular vote. Clinton, Gore and McAuliffe not only continue to prove themselves to be sore losers, but big liars.
Florida voters are not stupid.
On Monday, McAuliffe released a statement alleging GOP voter intimidation in Maryland, Texas, and New Hampshire. "Mr. President, do not let our election process fall prey to dirty political shenanigans once again," he said. "Tell your Republican party operatives to cease their voter intimidation practices and let Americans exercise their right to vote free of harassment and intimidation." A week before that, McAuliffe had released another statement alleging GOP misconduct in Arkansas, Florida, and Missouri. And a week before that, he accused Republicans of creating a "high level of disenfranchisement."
One of the rules of warfare is to accuse your enemy of doing the exact same thing your already planning to do.
Oink. Check out the Florida Constitutional Amendments thread.
Dems really can't whine too loudly down here about the process; the Ammendment Referendum on the ballot here mandating class size passed 52-48... McBride was for it, Bush against. So obviously, voters just didn't like McBride.
Here's what I have yet to hear anyone address: Dems did poorly in FL because their tried-and-true methods of FRAUD with the punchcards were moot with the new "touchscreen" voting machines in all the questionable counties. No more "Awls through the 3 hole" creating of 1,000's of Dems votes... Clearly, THE MITIGATION OF DEM VOTE 'CREATION' AFTER THE FACT IN FLORIDA COST THE DEMS 1,000'S OF VOTES IN 2002!
And something else that surprised me. This was a relatively high turnout election in several states. It looks like our "72-hour" ground game plan has worked out to a tee. The days of praying for rain are over.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
I believe you're right on target. I voted early yesterday, and was concerned when I saw people taking 30-40 minutes to vote. My neighbor, however, voted on the way home from work, and the poll was packed. He reported that almost everyone had a marked sample ballot, that the turnout in our ethnically and racially mixed district was reflective of the mix, that voters were patient, quicker at voting than anyone predicted, and that the one voter who made a scene was quickly, calmly and legally handled by a black poll worker.
Even in Democratic-controlled Broward County, voters are not as stupid as the Dems want them to be.
Just a little more icing on the cake...
And soon, he might not have his job. The Democrats' decisive losses will most likely mark the final act of the 2000 Florida controversy as a serious factor in party strategy. It is hard to see how McAuliffe, who was so closely identified with that strategy and is now a loser, can remain in his post.
Not only is he a loser, but one WHO KNOWS WHERE THE BODIES ARE BURIED! Don't take any plane rides Terry, Bubba might be delivering a eulogy at your wake.. Remember Ron Brown???
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