[Bill Murphy]

You're assuming a recount woulda gave Gore the win. IIRC, the NY friggin Times(not Fox News) did a recount, once all the hubbub died down. W+ ~542.

Plus, the Florida legislature was Repub controlled and eventually woulda appointed the Electors they wanted anyway(I'm not sure how the various Fed & State laws & Const's woulda applied, but that's where it woulda ended up. Mere fact Gore didn't want recounts in EVERY county assured that).

Oh, and the Gov of FL is Repub, too. And W's brother. QED.

We aren't even talking about it still if: Gore hadn't run the worst POTUS campaign in history; AND 30K Jews in FL had taken the time to check their confusingly laid out ballots and made sure they were voting for Gore instead of Pat "Hitler had great political courage" Buchanan.

All that said, the SCOTUS shoulda let the damn thing play out. Never shoulda got involved. The country woulda, somehow, survived a few months of President Hastert. Imagine if 9/11 happens on his watch, tho. [img]/images/graemlins/ooo.gif[/img]

Scalia doesn't even try to defend his vote on BvG, and Rehnquist & Sandy as supposed states rights/Federalists would never comment at all. Hell, Chief even made it clear in the opinion that in no way was it a, ahem, 'precedential' [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] ruling!

Nobody's perfect, and on the off chance something happens again, Roberts'll bat it right back to the State(s).