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2004-02-29

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Posted by .com 2004-02-29 10:12:15 AM|| || Front Page|| [6 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 What a crisis! I often wondered what could have happened in our 2000 election if Clinton/Gore had refused to leave office. Military officers and police would have to decide which side they were on - a tough choice. While I don't think they would have been asked to fire on citizens, there would be much consternation about whose orders should be followed. Choose the wrong side and your 20+ year career ends winds up in a jail sentence.

Posted by B 2004-2-29 10:25:59 AM|| 2004-2-29 10:25:59 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 They would choose too kick Clinton out of office. Probably the Secret Service would too. They may have taken orders from him, but those people recognize a dictatorship when they see one.

Posted by Charles 2004-2-29 11:28:58 AM|| 2004-2-29 11:28:58 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 Hugo's gradually combining the best of Bob and Fidel. I hope he gets a 9mm headache soon

Posted by Frank G 2004-2-29 12:44:20 PM|| 2004-2-29 12:44:20 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 B-
My understanding - had the scenario still included the SCOTUS saying "Bush won' - is that the Chief Justice would have sworn in GWB on schedule, as the call had been made that he was legally the President-elect. At that point - be still my beating heart - Clinton and Co. would have been guilty of about a half dozen or so heavy duty crimes against the state.
There are a couple of other scenarios tho that had me a lot more rattled. First, Clinton could have declared a national emergency in order to confuse matters even further. Richard Nixon didn't - and couldn't - because we had James Schlesinger as SecDef at the time, and he very quietly put the word out that there would be none of that on his watch, but SecDef Cohen was another matter entirely.
The other one - and supposedly this actually got raised by the Gore strategists - was that if a decision couldn't have been made by Inauguration Day, the President Pro Tem of the Senate would have taken over until things got sorted out. Anybody remember who that was at the time?
The idea was that they could keep throwing challenges at Bush's victory until they piled up so many false 'wins' that public opinion would turn against Bush.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2004-2-29 4:08:30 PM|| 2004-2-29 4:08:30 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 Mike - interesting. I'm sure if the Gore/Clinton team thought they could pull it off, they would have tried. They must have played out the scenarios and found themselve's on the losing end of all of them. Just like the Miami chad count.

Posted by B 2004-2-29 10:48:14 PM|| 2004-2-29 10:48:14 PM|| Front Page Top

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