Shock, Then Quick Action in Washington

Gleeful Democrats were moved to tears. Dumbfounded Republicans groaned. Then both sides grabbed their bags and bolted for the airport, heading back to Florida.

Official Washington watched slack-jawed as the Florida Supreme Court obliterated conventional wisdom and called for a recount of the state’s disputed ballots. Friday was supposed to be the end of this election-that-would-not-die.

But then the news broke on television sets all over town. The political world reeled.

“How sweet it is!” hooted Rep. Norman D. Dicks (D-Wash.). “It’s like being on the guillotine. Your head’s on the block. Then they say: ‘You’ve got a reprieve from the Supreme Court.’ ”

Watching the news in his office, Richard F. Goodstein, a lobbyist who is a longtime supporter of Al Gore, started sobbing.

The switchboard in the office of House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) lit up with callers volunteering to go to Florida to monitor the recount. “This judicial aggression must not stand,” fumed DeLay.

Democratic lawyers all over town were summoned by party officials to board a charter flight to Florida in a matter of hours. Republicans did likewise, recruiting many of the same strategists who had just spent weeks in Florida monitoring earlier recounts.

“I spent Thanksgiving in Florida and now I may get to spend Christmas there,” said one GOP operative.

And people all over Capitol Hill shuddered at the realization that this latest twist in the presidential saga made it more likely that the whole mess will land in Congress’ lap.

“It’s not good,” said John Feehery, spokesman for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).

Drama Pulls Politicians This Way, That Way

The Florida Supreme Court ruling whipsawed Washington one more time in the postelection drama that repeatedly has dashed hopes that the end is in sight.

“It’s just like the end of a Tchaikovsky symphony,” said Dan Maffei, a flabbergasted Democratic aide to the House Ways and Means Committee. “You think it’s over. Then the music starts again.”

In the two presidential camps, the reaction was decidedly more low-key. Vice President Gore stayed out of sight, leaving it to campaign manager Bill Daley to state his pleasure in a taciturn way. Texas Gov. George W. Bush also declined public comment, allowing James A. Baker III to voice outrage and promise an appeal.

The developments disrupted business as usual all around town: The news halted a meeting between White House and Democratic leaders on year-end budget talks. One Democrat who was interviewing for a job--just in case Gore did not win--was interrupted to take a call from a party official telling him to fly to Florida. Another call went to a former Justice Department official who happened to be at the White House.

“All I know is I have to be at National Airport at 10 o’clock tonight,” said the Democrat, who asked not to be identified. “I don’t even know what city I’m flying into.”

The news also disrupted social life as usual. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno was just beginning her annual Justice Department holiday party with eggnog and finger food when the decision was announced.

“Everyone just started yelling,” said one lawyer.

While Democrats were delighted at the latest twist, there was a faint air of frustration that the whole thing still was not over.

“It’s like being in labor for a week. You think it’s about to be over, but the pain keeps getting more intense,” said one senior Democratic aide.

Said Rep. Tim Roemer (D-Ind.): “It seems like the longer it goes on the less is resolved. I hope there is a conclusion or resolution in the next few days.”

But others were simply elated. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and her husband heard the news on the car radio as they returned from running errands at a Costco outlet in the Washington suburbs.

“And on the freeway, coming back from Costco, we won,” said Boxer. “I actually cried. I never cry. . . . I’ve been in politics 20 years and I’m pretty hardened.”

But while Democrats exulted, Republicans seethed.

“This is starting to resemble the movie ‘Groundhog Day,’ ” said Rep. J.C. Watts Jr. (R-Okla.). “Every morning America wakes up to the vice president calling for recounts and every night when we go to bed the vice president is still the loser, only to wake up to the same mind-numbing saga.”

Ruling Wasn’t a Surprise, Some Say

Some Republicans claimed they were not surprised by the ruling because it was what they expected from a court packed with Democratic appointees.

“They are complete hacks down there,” sniffed Grover Norquist, a conservative activist who confidently predicted that it will all be over by Monday.

Other Republicans had spent recent days near-certain that today would be the first day of the Bush presidency-elect. They started chilling the champagne when, earlier Friday, two other courts issued rulings that were big setbacks to Gore’s cause.

“OK, this is it, one more to go. If this thing goes our way, there will be a concession speech tonight,” one House Republican aide said to a friend. When the court proved him wrong, the aide said: “I feel like the little kid on Christmas [Eve] who’s waiting to open his presents and, on Christmas morning, his mother says to wait one more day.”

Shock was accompanied by outrage. The number of people signing up on an online anti-Gore petition put on the Internet by Watts spiked up to 25 a minute.

“I can’t understand this,” said Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita). “I’m dumbfounded.”

Bush Strategist Briefs House Republicans

Karl Rove, a top Bush strategist, conducted a conference call with House Republicans early Friday evening to brief them on the confusing swirl of events. One Republican asked Rove if it looked like the whole controversy was headed to Congress, according to a source listening in on the call. Rove told them it was more likely after this court ruling than it was before.

That is because the recount increases the chance that two rival sets of electors would be chosen: Bush electors by the state Legislature and Gore electors by the court if he wins the recount. It would be up to Congress to resolve the matter in the first week of January, when the House and Senate meet to count electoral college votes.

Some think the unpredictable dynamic of this presidential dispute is eerily reminiscent of the 1998 impeachment crisis.

“I remember sitting here going through impeachment,” the Senate GOP aide said. “You get in this boat and it heads downstream and you can’t get off of it. That’s the way it feels to me.”

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Times staff writers Alan C. Miller and Eric Lichtblau contributed to this story.

To read the complete text of Friday’s court decisions, go to:

https://www.latimes.com/decision2000