Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
IN THIS ISSUE
2 LETTERS
EDITORIALS & COMMENT
3 NO HONEYMOON
4 A FORCE TO RECKON WITH
Jonathan Schell
5 THE GOD THAT FAILED
Herman Schwartz
6 PARTISANSHIP RULES
Eric Foner
7 PRINCE AL
David Corn
7 IN FACT
8 HURRAH FOR OLD EC!
Robert Grossman
26 WHY THE POLLS WERE WRONG
Anna Greenberg
COLUMNS
6 ON LATE-TERM PRESIDENTIAL
TRAVELS
Calvin Trillin
9 MINORITY REPORT
Rogue Washington
Christopher Hitchens
10 SUBJECT TO DEBATE
This Is Your Country on Drugs
Katha Pollitt
ARTICLES
11 FATHER GREENSPAN LOVES US ALL
But as the bankers know, he loves some
of us more than others.
William Greider
18 BUILDING COMMUNITY UNIONS
In Stamford, Connecticut, organizers are
putting the movement back in labor.
Janice Fine
22 FREE TIME FOR A FREE PEOPLE
Theres a growing movement to add
livable hours to calls for a living wage.
Arthur Waskow
Illustrations by Steve Brodner,
Wes Bedrosian
EDITORIALS
No Honeymoon
The Nation.
January 1, 2001
COMMENT
TheNation.
Mark Gevisser
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January 1, 2001
The Nation.
COMMENT
the Republican warning that if the Supreme Court didnt settle the
matter, a constitutional crisis would follow. The Republican message, in other words, was that if they were not allowed to win, there
would be a constitutional crisis because they would produce one.
While all this was going on, the promises of bipartisanship that
had been such a prominent feature of the Bush campaign were
melting away. Such acts as the Florida legislatures decision to substitute its will for the will of the voters and the baseless charge that
Gores legal maneuvering constituted theft of the election hardly
showed a bipartisan spirit. In the meantime, the Republicans in the
Senate, which is divided 50/50 with the Democrats, refused any
institutional power-sharing arrangement and elected some of their
most conservative members as leaders. DeLay said that with the
Republicans in charge of all three branches of government they
would set the agenda, and Senator Phil Gramm of Texas announced, I have been waiting all my life for a Republican President and a Republican Congress. Something of what this resolve
meant on the practical level was revealed in a number of news
stories. The Los Angeles Times reported that the Republican hard
right was gearing up to staff the White House and the courts with
its members. Most people are focusing on fumigating the Justice
Department, said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for
Tax Reform. Meanwhile, the tide of money on which Bush floated to the White House was rising to the rafters in Republican
Washington. For instance, the contest within the Republican Party
for the chairmanship of the House Commerce Committee is, in the
words of Lizette Alvarez of the New York Times, between Billy
Tauzin of Louisiana, who is more closely allied to the Baby
Bells, and Michael Oxley of Ohio, who is allied to the long distance carriers. The Wall Street Journal notes that a veritable
bidding war erupted last year, as several candidates for chairmanshipsraised millions of dollars for GOP congressional candidates. Now Hastert, fearful of cutting short the bidding war, has,
according to legislators, been staying mum on how chairmanships will be decided.
It is true that the extreme actions of the Republicans during the
postelection crisis did not find much active support among the
people (a majority of whom consistently favored the Florida recount), just as the partys impeachment effort a year ago failed to
find such support. As we can now see, however, it is a mistake
to suppose that political extremism is dangerous only if backed
by popular fervor. The Republicans impeachment campaign
failed. But their postelection campaign succeeded. The Republicans, though enjoying the slenderest of legislative margins, will,
as DeLay triumphantly pointed out, be in charge of the presidency
and both houses of Congress. To this, in view of the recent ruling,
its tempting to add the judiciary. Popular support is the currency
of democracy, but it is not the only currency. History shows that
militant, highly organized, tightly disciplined parties can have
their way even in the midst of apathyor, perhaps, especially in
the midst of apathy. Power, as the founders of this country well
knew, is a mighty temptation. Money is another. Put the two together, and you have a force to reckon with. JONATHAN SCHELL
Jonathan Schell, The Nations peace and disarmament correspondent,
is the Harold Willens Peace Fellow at the Nation Institute.
The Nation.
January 1, 2001
COMMENT
be countedthe clear intent of the voterswas fine, but it
didnt provide substandards. There would thus be variations in
the way votes would be recounted from county to county and
maybe within a county from one team to another.
As Justices Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen
Breyer pointed out, the Florida courts failure to specify the precise manner for determining the intent of the voter is not unconstitutional. A majority of the states use the same intent standard,
and no one has ever suggested that it was unconstitutional. Indeed, county-by-county variation is inevitable, given that optical
scanners are used in some counties and punch cards in others.
Obviously, the Florida legislature knew this when it adopted its
electoral law. Yet it did not try to refine the test any further, though
other states have done so. In any event, as Stevens pointed out,
the disparities would probably have been eliminated because a
single judge would resolve all objections.
Breyer and David Souter quite reasonably suggested that if a
single substandard were indeed necessary then a remand to the
Florida court to establish such a standard was in order. But now
the Courts Catch-22 came into play: The Court had itself created
so many delays that the December 12 deadline could not be met!
No matter that the deadline was set only to avoid Congressional
challenges and that the real deadline was December 18.
The rule of law has taken a terrific beating from the Supreme
Court. Basic principles of adjudication have been trampled on:
that the Court should stay out of partisan political fights as much
as possible; that state courts are the arbiters of state law, one of
the oldest principles in our jurisprudence and one that this states
rightsloving Court in particular might have been expected to
honor; that a court doesnt create new doctrines that no one could
have anticipated without giving the affected parties a chance to
comply; that before hearing an argument, courts dont issue interim relief that could prove decisive unless absolutely necessary
to avoid irreparable harmhardly the case here since the results
of the recount could have been set aside if necessary.
In 1857 the Court intervened in a bitter national dispute when
CALVIN TRILLIN
ON LATE-TERM
PRESIDENTIAL TRAVELS
As Nixon neared the bitter end,
He knew what tapes might bring.
So, craving most some cheering crowds,
He headed for Beijing.
Now Clinton knows where he must go.
It isnt Carolina.
For Ireland is the Emerald Isle,
And also Clintons China.
it decided the Dred Scott case. It took decades for the Court and
the country to recover from that. How long will it take this time,
especially if further investigation confirms what we all already
knowthat this election was stolen under color of law?
HERMAN SCHWARTZ
Herman Schwartz is a professor of law at the Washington College of Law.
Partisanship Rules
January 1, 2001
The Nation.
COMMENT
participation in the democratic process that legislatures and a
future Court may view sympathetically.
Equally difficult to accept at face value is the majoritys
disdain for the principle of federalism these very Justices have
trumpeted for the past several years. Like the South before the
Civil War, which believed in states rights but demanded a fugitive-slave law that overrode the Norths judicial and police machinery, todays majority seems to view constitutional principles
as remarkably malleable when powerful interests are at stake.
The next time this Court turns down an appeal by a death-row
inmate on the grounds that federalism requires it to respect local
judicial procedures, the condemned plaintiff may well wonder
why his claims do not merit the same consideration as those of
the Republican candidate for President.
ERIC FONER
Eric Foner is DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University.
Prince Al
fter this, four Gore years? Is the Democratic Party stuck with
Prince Al until the next election? Did Campaign 2004: Bush
versus Gore II begin the moment the Supreme Court issued its
5-to-4 decision? The bad blood created by the disposition of
this election will not disappear quickly. The bitterness of this
In Fact . . .
REHNQUIST AND MINORITY VOTERS
During William Rehnquists 1986 confirmation hearings as
Chief Justice, James Brosnahan, a former assistant US Attorney
in Phoenix, recalled on Election Day 1962 receiving complaints
that Republican poll watchers were aggressively challenging
black and Hispanic voters without legal basis. Investigating complaints against a GOP pollwatcher at a precinct in south Phoenix,
he discovered the culprit was Rehnquist. Rehnquist denied to the
Judiciary Committee that he ever harassed or challenged voters.
That does not comport with my recollection of the events I witnessed in 1962, Brosnahan testified. The witness was brought
to the committee by the Nation Institutes Supreme Court Watch.
His testimony has a contemporary relevance in light of the
Supreme Courts ruling that a recount in Florida would deny
equal protection of the law while complaints by minority voters
being turned away from the polls in Florida on Election Day
by the same sort of harassment continue to mount (to read
James Brosnahans full testimony go to www.thenation.com).
The Nation.
January 1, 2001