US SC reverses Florida court ruling on hand counts

WASHINGTON, Dec 13: The US Supreme Court today reversed a decision by the Florida Supreme Court to order hand recounts of disputed Presidential ballots, a move seen as clearing the way for George W Bush’s election as the next US President.

"Given all these factors in light of the legislative intent identified by the Florida Supreme Court..., the remedy prescribed by the Supreme Court of Florida cannot be deemed an appropriate one," Chief Justice William Rehnquist said in a majority opinion.

"For these reasons in addition to those given, we would reverse," he added.

The court issued its eagerly-awaited ruling nearly 34 hours after hearing oral arguments on the issue by lawyers of the two White House rivals.

Saturday, the court’s nine justices, in a 5-4 decision, ruled that the manual recounts ordered by Florida’s Supreme Court a day earlier should be suspended pending hearing on the issue.

Bush, the Texas Governor, enjoys a scant 537-vote edge out of more than six million ballots cast in the Presidential contest in Florida five weeks ago. Gore insists that hand recounts would show he won the southeastern state.

Whoever wins Florida and its decisive 25 electoral votes will succeed Bill Clinton in the White House next month.

Hand recounts were Gore’s only realistic chance of overtaking Bush’s lead in the White House race.

Today’s victory for Bush dooms Gore’s battle for recounts and leaves him with little option but to concede the Presidential election for the second time after more than five weeks of battling for recounts.

Shutting off Gore’s only other avenue to the White House, the Florida Supreme Court yesterday threw out appeals seeking the invalidation of some 25,000 absentee ballots in Seminole and Martin Counties, most of which went to Bush.

In the November 7 election, Texas Governor Bush, 54, carried the state by 1,700 votes, according to the first machine count, a margin so small a second count was mandated.

Gore, 52, who had conceded the election early on November 8, changed his mind when the closeness of the tally became apparent, and after the second machine count he was behind by a mere 327 votes.

Boosted by the inclusion of overseas ballots, Bush’s lead rose to 930, but by the time the total was officially certified on November 26 to include some hand recounts, Bush’s lead was again down, to 537 votes.

The Vice President, who won the nationwide vote by 300,000 ballots out of more that 100 million cast on election night, launched his official challenge, or contest of the election results, the following day.

In a bitter blow, Florida’s Leon County Circuit Court Judge Sanders Sauls threw out Gore’s case in its entirety on December 4. However, the Florida’s Supreme Court threw the Vice President a lifeline, upholding his appeal against Sauls’ decision and ordering recounts of more than 40,000 disputed ballots on Friday.

Only three times in the history of the United States has the winner of the popular vote lost the Presidential election. Should Bush be confirmed as President, it will be the fourth time. (AFP)

UN General Assembly condemns all acts of terrorism

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 13: The UN General Assembly has condemned all acts of terrorism as criminal and unjustifiable, and called for a global conference to formulate an organised response to the menace.

In a resolution adopted yesterday, the 189-member assembly also authorised an ad-hoc committee to continue negotiations aimed at drawing up a comprehensive convention against international terrorism and a treaty for suppressing acts of nuclear terrorism.

The Committee, which would meet from February 12 to 23 and from October 15 to 26 next year, will consider in detail the question of convening the international conference under the aegis of the world body.

While condemning all acts of terrorism as criminal and unjustifiable irrespective of where they are committed and by whom, the assembly urged all states to adopt measures to prevent terrorism and strengthen international effort to combat it.

Without naming any state, it asked all countries to refrain from financing, encouraging, training or supporting terrorist activities.

The assembly also condemned acts of violence against diplomatic and consular missions and representatives and asked the United States to consider removing travel restrictions imposed on certain mission and US staff of certain nationalities. (PTI)

Bush-agent of family revenge, personal transformation

WASHINGTON, Dec 13: George W Bush, who is likely to become the 43rd President of the United States, has purged a deep family humiliation by seizing back the White House snatched from his father by Bill Clinton in 1992.

His victory, apparently sealed by today’s momentous ruling by the US Supreme Court barring hand vote recounts of disputed ballots in Florida, also cements a personal transformation, from reckless baby boomer to born-again Christian and middle-aged pillar of establishment.

Bush’s personal history and campaign rhetoric positioned him as the man to lead members of his generation away from the frivolity of their youth and out of the long shadow cast by the World War II heroism of their parents.

Although a relative novice in the power game, Bush, the Governor of Texas, comes from rich political stock and inherited a slick party machine left idling when George Bush senior was bundled out of office.

"W," as he is affectionately known by supporters, comes across as easy-going and sometimes playful, in stark contrast to the starchy, patrician image adopted by his father.

But his nonchalance and apparent disdain for intellectualism hide a fiercely competitive streak and fidelity to core beliefs, evidenced in his refusal to give an inch to al gore in a tortuous legal battle after the inconclusive election, as well as his unshakeable belief in the texas death penalty.

By emerging from the month-long fog of litigation as victor, the 54-year-old Bush is faced with a fractured political landscape which will test to the full his claim that he is skilled at uniting bitter political rivals.

He must also prove that his mantra of "compassionate conservatism," coined to place him on the political middle ground away from radical Congressional Republicans, is a viable concept — not just a campaign slogan.

Drawing on a family history which boasts a recent president, a respected senator (late grandfather Prescott), another current Governor (brother Jeb in Florida), Bush styled himself as ready to restore honour to Washington.

The unspoken rubric of his campaign was that Clinton, the first of the post-war generation to reach the White House had squandered his chance, and sullied his office with a litany of scandals.

"Our generation has a chance to reclaim some essential values — to show we have grown up before we grow old," Bush said when he accepted his party’s nomination at the Republican convention in July.

That line might have been a character sketch of Bush himself, who admits to a wild and prolonged youth in which he drank far too much.

But like Shakespeare’s Henry V, who infuriated his ruling father with riotous living but emerged from lowlife culture as a leader, Bush underwent a personal transformation.

Bush credits his change of life, to wife Laura, a Texas Librarian with whom he has 18-year-old twin daughters and who anchored his rise through politics.

"You can judge a man by the company he keeps," Bush said in every campaign speech, referring fondly to his wife.

But despite his heritage, Bush has been forced to confront claims that he has insufficient gravity to be President, woefully lacking in knowledge of foreign affairs and weighty domestic policy.

To offset that attack, Bush surrounded himself with respected members of his father’s circle, including former Gulf War General Colin Powell and his Vice Presidential nominee Richard Cheney.

But even that caused him problems, leaving him with the task of confounding the ridicule of commentators and the media who charge he is merely a puppet of a lishment desperate for power.

George W Bush, the oldest of six children, was born in new haven, connecticut on July 6, 1946 and spent his early days in dusty midland, Texas, where his father began a lucrative career in the oil industry.

After an idyllic Texas childhood, Bush studied at Yale and Harvard Business School, but was not considered an academic high riser.

He served as a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard, exposing him to later accusations he used family connections to escape the Vietnam war.

After following his father into the oil industry, Bush then headed a coalition which bought the Texas rangers baseball team, a period of life he appears to have enjoyed immensely.

Bush then turned to politics, defeating fearsome Texas Governor Ann Richards in 1994, and laying to rest his own, disastrous run for Congress in 1978.

He was re-elected in 1998, by which time he had already emerged as front-runner for the 2000 Republican Presidential nomination. (AFP)

Al Gore’s hopes dashed

WASHINGTON, Dec 13: Vice President Al Gore’s chances of entering the White House through a determined legal battle appeared to have been finally sealed with the US Supreme Court today reversing a decision on vote recount in Florida as the democrat candidate came under intense pressure to concede victory to Republican George W Bush.

Once again, like the rest of the nation, a divided Supreme Court held that the hand recount of votes ordered by Florida Supreme Court last week violated an amendment to the US Constitution guaranteeing equal protection to every vote.

As the extraordinary five-week suspense on the outcome of the Presidential elections seem to be ending, bush did not openly claimed victory but was obviously pleased with the Apex Court judgement. Bush is now assured of the 25 votes from Florida when the 537-member electoral college meets here to choose the 43rd US President. He will have a majority of one.

Gore and his aides scrambled through the verdict and the Vice President is expected to come out with a statement.

As Democratic National Committee Chairman Ed Rendell asked Gore to concede, the national chair of the democratic party rebuked colleagues making such a demand.

By a complex judgement, the majority ruling remitted the case back to Florida court holding that further proceeding should "not be inconsistent with this opinion."

"Because it is evident that any recount seeking to meet the December 12 date will be unconstitutional for the reasons we have discussed, we reverse the judgement of the Supreme Court of Florida ordering recount to proceed," the judges said in the judgement.

AFP adds:

The court was split 5-4 along ideological lines in its eagerly-awaited ruling released nearly 34 hours after hearing oral arguments from Gore’s lawyers hoping to proceed with the new tallies and Bush attorneys charging that they are illegal and must be stopped.

The nine justices had voted by a 5-4 split decision on saturday to halt manual recounts of more than 40,000 disputed ballots ordered by the florida Supreme Court on Friday pending Monday’s hearing on the issue.

Bush, the Texas Governor, enjoys a scant 537-vote edge out of more than six million ballots cast in the Presidential contest in Florida five weeks ago. Gore insists that hand recounts would show he won the southeastern state.

Whoever wins Florida and its decisive 25 electoral votes will succeed Bill Clinton in the White House next month.

Hand recounts were Gore’s only realistic chance of over taking Bush’s lead in the White House race.

Shutting off Gore’s only other avenue to the White House, the Florida Supreme Court earlier threw out appeals seeking the invalidation of some 25,000 absentee ballots in Seminole and Martin Counties, most of which went to Bush.

In the November 7 election, Texas Governor Bush, 54, carried the state by 1,700 votes, according to the first machine count, a margin so small a second count was mandated. Gore, 52, who had conceded the election early on November 8, changed his mind when the closeness of the tally became apparent, and after the second machine count he was behind by a mere 327 votes.

Boosted by the inclusion of overseas ballots, Bush’s lead rose to 930, but by the time the total was officially certified on November 26 to include some hand recounts, Bush’s lead was again down, to 537 votes.

The Vice President, who won the nationwide vote by 300,000 ballots out of more that 100 million cast on election night, launched his official challenge, or contest of the election results, the following day.

In a bitter blow, Florida’s Leon County Circuit Court Judge Sanders Sauls threw out Gore’s case in its entirety on December 4. However, the Florida’s Supreme Court threw the Vice President a lifeline, upholding his appeal against Sauls’ decision and ordering recounts of more than 40,000 disputed ballots on Friday.

Only three times in the history of the United States has the winner of the popular vote lost the Presidential election. Should Bush be confirmed as president, it will be the fourth time. (PTI)

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