As a followup on the Miami riot thing, here’s a link to a column by Carl Hiaassen on the incident. He says that GOP Rep. John Sweeney’s “Shut it down” statement was in reference to the protest, not the recount, contradicting the Salon article I linked to yesterday. For what it’s worth, I don’t believe that the recount was stopped because of this protest. What bothers me is that members of the GOP leadership hoped that this protest would shut down the recount. I also don’t necessarily believe that Bush was involved in any of this, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Tom DeLay and his buddies hatched this plan all on their own.
Steve pointed to this transcript of a Tom Daschle/Dick Gephardt press conference in which they make the point that the uncounted votes in Florida will be available through the FOIA, so it’s in Bush’s best interests to go ahead and have all the votes counted now. I heard a rumor yesterday that I have not yet been able to confirm, which was that New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman suggested banning FOIA requests for the Florida votes for the next 8 years. If that’s true, it’s one of the most undemocratic ideas I’ve read.
I just wanted to say that I heard a tape of Rep. John Sweeney’s talking about his “shut it down” comment on the radio today, and Carl Hiaassen was wrong, Sweeney was saying to shut down the recount, not shut down the protest. Again, I don’t think the protest intimidated the canvassing board in Dade County, but it’s obvious that intimidation was its intent.