Perhaps the Longest Day for Bush, Gore

Like the rest of America, the principals at the heart of Bush vs. Gore, No. 00-949, spent Monday watching and waiting.

Vice President Al Gore offered no public comment on the U.S. Supreme Court case that almost certainly will determine the fate of his presidential quest.

Texas Gov. George W. Bush professed to be “cautiously optimistic” about a favorable ruling, but joked he was “keeping my emotions in check.”

Both hoped for the best and said nothing--in public, anyway--about what they might do in case of the worst.

Gore and his wife, Tipper, were at the vice president’s official residence--the mansion at the Naval Observatory in Washington--during the morning, while the high court heard arguments from lawyers representing the two presidential rivals.

Two of their daughters, Karenna and Kristin, and their son, Albert, were in court for the arguments. A third daughter, Sarah, a Harvard student, was in Cambridge, Mass.

At midday, Gore’s running mate, Joseph I. Lieberman, and Lieberman’s wife, Hadassah, arrived at the vice president’s home for lunch. At roughly the same time, Bill Daley, Gore’s campaign manager, and Warren Christopher, who has led Gore’s legal team in Florida, arrived from the court to brief them on the arguments, according to Jim Kennedy, a Gore spokesman.

They were joined by Ron Klain, a senior member of Gore’s legal team; David Boies, who argued the case before the Supreme Court; Boies’ wife, Mary; and Frank Hunger, Gore’s brother-in-law.

As a television broadcast an audiotape of the court arguments, Boies reported to the group that he thought the morning had gone very well, one participant said, and the vice president told Boies that he “did a great job.”

“It was a very light conversation,” the participant said.

In Austin, Bush began his day with a now-routine national security briefing from U.S. intelligence officials. The governor then met with Andrew Card, his choice to be White House chief of staff, for about an hour.

Arriving for work at the Capitol, Bush was asked if he would go along with a recount if that were the ruling of the Supreme Court. “I’m making a statement once we determine what the outcome of the Supreme Court decision is, and we’ll see what happens,” he said.

Bush left the Capitol at noon, well after the arguments had ended, and spent a few minutes greeting a crowd of perhaps 200 supporters. Then he went for a workout at the University of Texas before returning to the Governor’s Mansion.

“I talked to some of our legal team. They are cautiously optimistic,” Bush told reporters “If they are, I am.”

Was he nervous awaiting such a momentous decision? “Feel pretty calm about it,” he replied.

Although Gore stayed mum, his aides expressed similar optimism that the Supreme Court would allow the manual count of votes in Florida to resume.

Failing that, Lieberman suggested the Democrats would concede the race.

Lieberman, a senator from Connecticut, told a Hartford radio station that if Bush won in the high court, “that’s probably the end of it,” the Associated Press reported.

But, he said in the interview with WTIC-AM, if the court allows a resumption of the count, which was stopped by its order on Saturday, the dispute could stretch into 2001.

In a written statement after the court session, Gore campaign spokesman Chris Lehane said: “We are confident and optimistic in the strength of our case because it’s predicated on the fundamental democratic principle of one person, one vote. We continue to believe that every ballot must be counted.”

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Gerstenzang reported from Austin and Chen from Washington.