Down & Dirty (100 page)

“Dignified Ending to Dole’s Gutsy, Arduous Campaign,” headlined the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
on November 6, 1996, about Sen. Bob Dole.

And so, what’s next for Gore?

“I know I speak for all of you and for all the American people when I say that he will be our president, and we’ll work with
him. This nation faces major challenges ahead, and we must work together. And I extended my best wishes to him and to Mrs.
Bush and to the members of the Bush family.”

That’s not Gore speaking. It was Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis in 1988.

And he was interrupted by the Democratic crowd.

They cheered: “’92! ’92! ’92! ’92! ’92! ’92!”

At the Governor’s Club, Ginsberg has taken a few dozen of the Florida state GOP staffers out to dinner, “all the folks we
displaced,” as he later puts it.
Before the champagne toasts to Bush and their efforts, they all watch Gore’s speech silently. Ginsberg will later call it
“graceful.”

Down the street, at Po’ Boys, Gore’s speech gets a different reaction from Speaker Feeney.

“What a loser,” Feeney says, according to a
Sun-Sentinel
reporter who Feeney doesn’t know is there. He calls it “an evil speech.”

Just as Gore didn’t seem slick or fake or insincere or arrogant or condescending—even humbly referencing his need to “mend
some fences” in Tennessee, both “literally and figuratively”—Bush, in his acceptance speech, successfully steers clear of
his oratory foibles.

He doesn’t smirk, doesn’t mispronounce any words with more than two syllables, doesn’t seem—as he too often does—a few California
rolls short of a sushi platter. His tongue darts in and out of his mouth a tad too often (dry mouth?), but Bush seems sturdy,
strong, and a good winner.

In stark contrast with his campaign staffers who drummed up Florida crowds with anti-Gore vitriol, Bush even suggests that
he understands, even empathizes with, Gore’s attitude of the last few weeks.“Gore and I put our hearts and hopes into our
campaigns,” Bush says. “We both gave it our all. We shared similar emotions. So I understand how difficult this moment must
be…. He has a distinguished record of service to our country as a congressman, a senator, and as a vice president.”

(Bush doesn’t work into his speech Gore’s service in Vietnam during the war. Gore, helpfully, did.)

Bush asks for prayers for him and his family, prayers for Gore and his family, for “this great nation,” as well as “for leaders
from both parties.” With the Creator in mind, Bush puts a karmic spin on the last thirty-six days, saying, “I believe that
things happen for a reason, and I hope the long wait of the last five weeks will heighten a desire to move beyond the bitterness
and partisanship of the recent past.”

Bush emphasizes his desire to work with Democrats, ticking off reforms that everyone can agree on in the broadest, most superficial
terms imaginable: education, Social Security reform, Medicare, tax relief, foreign policy “true to our values,” and a strong
and superior military. Bush does seem better suited to co-leading a bipartisan consensus on Medicare and Social Security reform
than Gore, but the bloody, ugly divisiveness of the last six weeks may prove far more powerful than the glossy sheen Bush
tried to coat his incoming presidency with.

Speaking of divisiveness, having lost the black vote by a larger percentage than any Republican presidential candidate since
Gerald Ford in 1976, Bush even marginally reaches out to the black community—heralding “our shared American values that are
larger than race or party,” and adding that “the president of the United States is the president of every single American,
of every race and every background.”

Comparing this tight race to the hard-fought 1800 race that delivered the presidency to perhaps America’s most brilliant president,
Thomas Jefferson, the man who is probably not even in the top fiftieth percentile says he would “be guided by President Jefferson’s
sense of purpose: to stand for principle, to be reasonable in manner, and, above all, to do great good for the cause of freedom
and harmony.” Perhaps hoping to increase the sales of his campaign “autobiography,”
A Charge to Keep
(written by spokeswoman Karen Hughes), Bush says that “the presidency is more than an honor, more than an office, it is a
charge to keep and I will give it my all.”

It’s a great speech, given to thunderous applause from the Democrat-controlled Texas house of representatives, highlighting
Bush’s boasts of having reached across the aisle to work with Democrats. Or so it appears. After being introduced by Democrat
speaker of the house Pete Laney, Bush refers to the chamber as “a place where Democrats have the majority, Republicans and
Democrats have worked together to do what is right for the people we represent. We had spirited disagreements, and in the
end, we found constructive consensus. It is an experience I will always carry with me, and an example I will always follow.
The spirit of cooperation I have seen in this hall is what is needed in Washington, D.C.”

It turns out that dozens of Democrats actually weren’t invited. “We weren’t asked to come,” says state representative Garnet
Coleman, vice chairman of the Texas house’s Public Health Committee and a member of the Appropriations Committee. Calling
the Bush team’s failure to invite Democrats “phony” and “hypocritical,” Democratic state representative Kevin Bailey, D-Houston,
says that “it was kind of surprising that we weren’t invited.”

“It shows you how good they are at presenting impressions,” adds Coleman.

Gore spokesman Douglas Hattaway is at Café Cabernet with some friends and colleagues. He’s approached by Michael Leach, of
Seminole County fame.

“Hey!” Leach says after introducing himself.“Great speech! Except when he attacked the Supreme Court.”

“What part was
that?!
” asks Hattaway.

“You know,” says Leach, “when he said he disagreed with them.”

“You know what?” says Hattaway. “I need a fucking drink.”

The Plot to Steal the Presidency

Walk into the Grand Atrium of the Ronald Reagan Building on Friday night, January 19, 2001, and you’ll be treated to some
interesting scenes.

There’s Fred Bartlit over there, hugging Ken Starr.

There’s Phil Beck, warmly introducing Dr. Laurentius Marais to fellow guests. “My star witness!” he says.

Ginsberg, Carvin, Terwilliger, Van Tine. Olson’s over there—they say he might be solicitor general!

It’s the Baker Botts reception for former president and Barbara Bush. A black-tie affair, packed to the gills. Tomorrow, George
W. Bush will be sworn in as president of the United States.

“George W.’s first job was in the mail room of Baker Botts,” Baker says to the crowd.

Soon it’s Bush Sr.’s turn to speak. “I want to thank Jim, who went over there and did that superb job.” He also thanks the
“many lawyers from Baker Botts and across the country who went down there at their own expense and did a fantastic job of
getting out the truth and protecting, I’d say, the rights of all of the voters in Florida.” The lawyers, Bush says, “went
over there and, in my opinion, Barbara’s opinion, did the Lord’s work.”

He has praise, in particular, for Baker. “I mean, Christopher never had a chance up against this guy—I’m telling ya!” Bush
says.“He was in over his head when Baker took him on.”

“Without reminiscing too much about the event, those terrible thirty-seven days,” Bush says, with Jeb’s son George P. Bush
by his side, “I think one of the things troubled me the most were the gratuitous attacks on this boy’s father. The attacks
on Jeb Bush, the governor, the most honorable, honest man in the world. It really burned me up, and Barbara, too.

“I don’t know why I’m getting off on that tangent in this night, but this seemed like a friendly crowd to tell that to.”

There are balls and parties all over town. Ginsberg and his law/lobbying firm, Patton Boggs, host one for the Bush legal team.
Greenberg Traurig’s D.C. office hosts Barry Richard. At the Florida Ball, in the National Building Museum, in a black, ruffled,
strapless, floor-length silk gown, wearing a large diamond choker and a wrap is Katherine Harris. She may be appointed to
a position in the Bush administration yet—one that doesn’t require Senate confirmation. Or she may run for Congress; there’s
reportedly a GOP House seat opening up in the Sarasota area.

“I want you to know how very much I missed you and how very pleased I am to be back in circulation,” she says to a mass of
Floridians.

There’s John Ellis, of Fox News Channel, over there, talking about the Bush “dynasty.” “For all the press jabber about dynastic
pretensions, I’ve never heard anyone in the family talk about it,” he tells a fawning reporter from the
New York Times,
whose subsequent story doesn’t even mention Ellis’s role in his cousin’s presidency.“It’s viewed as an amazing thing, not
a dynastic thing. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. I think George W. and George Herbert Walker Bush both worked very hard
to get where they are today. But it’s extraordinary that it happened. If you wrote it in a book, nobody would believe it.”