Obviously, the George W. Bush pre-election charade was just that, a charade. There isn't a compassionate soul among the cadre of lawyers and politicians that Bush has assembled to declare the 2000 presidential election his.

You would think that since a quarter million more Americans voted for the other guy they might display a smidgen of humility, but not these people.

First comes the arrogant James Baker, the former secretary of state and the very symbol of the Papa Bush administration's aloofness and constant catering to the right wing.

"We won,'' he insists, so all you Gore people get your carcasses out of here, and let us form the new administration.

Then comes the governor of Montana, whose idea of solving this stalemate is to accuse the Gore people of fraud, deceit, cheating and every other synonym of those words. One can't help but think that perhaps this guy, Marc Racicot, would be better off figuring out why his state keeps burning to a crisp each summer.

And how about Karl Rove, the political strategist who used to work with the late Lee Atwater devising right-wing schemes for the Christian Coalition and its allies? Rove is another of the George W. spokespeople to accuse the Democrats of trying to "steal'' the Florida vote.

What we've been seeing, of course, is the kind of administration that Bush will form should he eventually be declared the winner in Florida. There won't be a compassionate soul among them.

Anyone with any compassion -- Democrat or Republican -- ought to be working to solve this dilemma as fairly as humanly possible. Compassionate people ought to be concerned why several thousand people went to the polls and didn't get their votes counted. They ought to be concerned whether some of the election machinery worked correctly and, yes, they ought to be concerned why so many military ballots were thrown out.

Accusations that one side is trying to cheat in the face of the most watched election counting in the history of America do nothing but make an already tense situation worse.

A mericans have made it clear they are willing to wait for the results. Do the recount fairly, make as many votes count as possible, and then declare the winner. The loser should then graciously concede and go about his business.

Meanwhile, perhaps the state of Florida ought to quit acting as America's tax haven for the rich and enact an income tax so they just might have enough money to buy some modern voting machines.

This is what happens when you try to run on the cheap all the time.

Copyright 2000 The Capital Times

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