The Dems’ Florida Trap - Their strategy to make the GOP pay for Florida backfired — big time.

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November 6, 2002 8:30 a.m.

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!" [Kinda reminds me of the famous Churchill chicken speech. I think it was Hitler or one of his henchman who said that England would have its neck wrung like a chicken. "Some chicken!" said Churchill. Then added with perfect timing: "Some neck!" Right "Some Congress!" "Some door!"]

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 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.

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2002

Answers

Response to The Dems’ Florida Trap - Their strategy to make the GOP pay for Florida backfired — big time.

ya gotta wonder if the DNC had intended to run in Florida with Reno, and when she lost to that scary dude, McBride [who I voted for in the primary because I didn't want to see Reno on tv anymore] they realized they had an uphill battle because McBride had a bad history.

His lawfirm.

His ethics.

And yes, dare I say it, his looks. he is just scary looking. His last ad, well, the one I saw, had him staring into the camera and talking. I got the feeling it was two [or more] films of him, with only his mouth moving in one, and the other of his upper face staring at the camera. What he was saying did not show in his eyes.

I don't claim to be a sensitive or anything like that, but when i saw that ad, and I did see it a few times, it always gave me the chills and an upset stomach. I started muting it and averting my eyes, or changing the channel, when it came on.

But, it's over. Jebby is gov'na. And the shit is still poised to hit the fan in world events.

-- Anonymous, November 06, 2002


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