Florida's Legislature marched toward a special session, its Supreme Court deliberated and George W. Bush and Al Gore watched anxiously from afar today as the nation's presidential election adventure neared a climax. A defeat for the vice president in the state's high court, said one Democratic senator bluntly, and "this battle's over."
"We're hopeful that we'll finally see finality in this election," Bush told reporters as he met with aides who would work in his White House. "It's time to get on with America's business."
"I think this is the definitive day," said Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., as judges in two trial courts as well as the state Supreme Court pondered their cases 31 days after Election Day.
In a last-minute legal maneuver, Bush's lawyers filed an unusual clarification with the Supreme Court, telling the seven justices they don't have authority to grant Gore the manual recounts he seeks.
"This court does not have authority to grant such relief under Florida law or federal law," the Bush petition said, reversing comments Bush attorney Barry Richard made Thursday in oral arguments that the high court had "limited" jurisdiction.
In the trial courts below, Circuit Court Judges Nikki Clark and Terry Lewis relayed word they would rule later today on lawsuits filed by Democratic voters seeking to throw out thousands of absentee ballots in Martin and Seminole counties.
"They're in the process of editing those rulings right now," said Doug Smith, a spokesman for the judges.
Bush is the certified winner by 537 votes in Florida, and Gore has been attempting to overturn that in the courts and win the manual recounting of thousands of ballots he says could reverse his rival's lead. The winner of the state's 25 electoral votes stands to take office in January as the nation's 43rd president.
Torricelli offered his brutally simple prediction on CBS, saying, "If Al Gore cannot persuade the Florida Supreme Court . . . then this battle's over."
Also on CBS, Gore adviser Ron Klain said the vice president's team viewed the state Supreme Court as "the final arbiter of Florida law," and he acknowledged the obvious in saying a loss there "would be a setback for us, and a major one."
But Klain, also on CBS, said he's been party to no talk of a concession by Gore. And with Florida Democrats battling to give Gore an advantage in two lower court cases, Klain would not commit Gore to bowing out if he loses in the state Supreme Court. "We think we'll win," he said.
Across the street from the Supreme Court building in the state Capitol, members of the Republican-controlled Legislature convened a special session, ready by all accounts to appoint a slate of electors loyal to Bush. The Legislature's heavily outnumbered Democrats charged the Bush campaign was pulling the strings from Texas but conceded they were powerless to prevail.
The speaker of the Florida House, Tom Feeney, acknowledged he has received advice from Bush intermediaries but denied the campaign was calling the shots. Such allegations from Democrats were "out of touch" with reality, he said.
But the Bush campaign said its lawyers "provided legal interpretations when asked by legislators, and no one could be surprised by that. Nor would anyone be surprised if such contacts occurred between Democratic legislators and Gore lawyers," said a spokesman, Tucker Eskew.
Depending on the outcome of Gore's appeal, the legislation contemplated by GOP leaders could set up a contest between two rival Florida slates when the Electoral College votes are cast on Dec. 18 and then counted in Congress on Jan. 6. That, in turn, could ratchet up the controversy even further in the contest to pick a president.
In Thursday's high court hearing, Gore lawyer David Boies implored the court to grant the selective manual recounts that could yet revive the vice president's hopes of winning the White House.
The Florida top court offered no hint of when it would rule, although the seven justices moved with unusual speed a little more than two weeks ago in an earlier recount-related case. This time, if anything, the time pressure is even greater, since Dec. 12 is the deadline for appointment of the state's 25 presidential electors.
At the same time, two other judges in the state capital of Tallahassee weighed Democratic requests to throw out thousands of absentee votes, a move that also could tip the balance to Gore. Republicans made clear that they were ready to appeal any unfavorable ruling, possibly returning to a federal appeals court in Atlanta.
"We have always had to prepare for every contingency. . . . We are prepared to file appeals and briefs," Bush attorney Barry Richard said late Thursday on CNN.
Even so, there were other court cases pending in a controversy that has spawned dozens of them.
Both absentee ballot cases were filed by Democrats — and have since been cited approvingly by Gore — claiming that the ballots are invalid because detachable ballot applications were not properly filled out and elections officials allowed information to be added improperly.
Either of those two cases had the potential to transform a controversy that had Gore struggling for survival and Bush working conspicuously on his transition to power.
But the main focus on Thursday was in state Supreme Court, where Boies pressed Gore's case to open up roughly 13,000 ballots in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties to a manual recount, and where Richard argued the justices would be exceeding their legal authority if they did so.
Both men were barraged with questions.
"We're now here on December the 7th, with December the 12th, you know, fast approaching," Justice Harry Lee Anstead told Boies in the final question of the session. "How can we resolve an issue like that at this late date?"
"There's never been a rule that says you have to recount all the ballots in an election contest," Boies replied, returning one final time to his point that only a small fraction of more than 1 million ballots need be reviewed.
Besides, he said, the Bush campaign never asked for a recount.