HBO's 'Recount' movie which premiered Sunday night, and will re-run on Monday evening, certainly lived up to the admission of actor Kevin Spacey, who played Gore operative Ron Klain, that it presented the 2000 Florida election aftermath through the eyes of the “underdog” Democrats fighting to “count every vote” despite being frustrated by Republican Secretary of State Katherine Harris who was portrayed as an easily-manipulated dolt. But Tom Wilkinson as James Baker came off as an in-command strategist and the movie delivered some anti-Democratic points rarely heard in the news media:
First, Bob Balaban, as Bush-Cheney lawyer Ben Ginsberg, reacting to Gore-Lieberman campaign Chairman Bill Daley whose father was Mayor of Chicago in 1960: “His daddy stole it for JFK and now he's going to steal it for Gore.” Second, from Wilkinson as James Baker: “Who knows how many votes we lost when the networks called Florida for Gore before all the polls were closed on election night.”
But the weirdest moment came in a scene of a protest held outside the Florida Supreme Court in Tallahassee. A man, holding a Bush-Cheney sign, chanted: “Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw have bald spots! Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw have bald spots!”
UPDATE: Weird, but close to reality. In 'Down and Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency,' the 2001 book by Jake Tapper now with ABC News (Tapper's Political Punch blog), Tapper reported on page 139: “A guy with a sign saying 'God Made Bush President' appears. Another, hyping the Web site Newsmax.com, starts shouting out that 'Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw have bald spots.' This guy has a bald spot, too.”
For details on how Bush really did win despite the implication of the movie that the U.S. Supreme Court blocked an accurate vote count, check my earlier NewsBusters posting, “Reminder: Bush Won in Florida Recounts Conducted by the Media.”
The film was fun to watch if only for the archival footage from ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN (most of whose anchors and reporters -- Judy Woodruff, Bernard Shaw, Greta van Susteren and Bob Franken -- have moved on) on election night and afterward, including a reminder of Dan Rather's goofy “Danisms/Ratherisms.”
—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center
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Our second national disgrace
May 26, 2008 - 00:24 ET by Captain RepusThis entire circus seemed quite fitting for our country after we had already been turned into the laughing stock of the world by the Bill/Hillary freak show.
Unfortunately, instead of this election stopping the madness, it simply primed the mindless half of our country for 8 years of 'we wuz robbed', in spite of repeated evidence of the validity of the election of GWB.
Watching idiots like Spacy and Dern continuing to spew the great lie is entertaining but shows what a total waste of our precious oxygen supply 4 lungs can acheive.
Of course the liberal movie
May 26, 2008 - 08:34 ET by True_SoldierOf course the liberal movie had to make Bush supporters seem loonier than the left by the guy yelling out about baldspots.
The looney Left
May 26, 2008 - 09:50 ET by pbthinkerThe illustrious Palm Beach Post, participated in looking over the ballots trying very hard for proof of a Gore win, and couldn't come up with a legal scenerio where Gore could have won. However, in their wisdom as good liberals, they cleverly did come up with ways, which were way beyond election law at the time, for Gore to win. NOw, their one sided, extremely liberal, editorial board still brings up 2000 saying it was stolen by the Supreme Court, in spite of the facts presented.
I have little problem with the liberals crying about this, Gore is getting even for this by trying to impose huge tax increases on everyone that didn't vote for him, but the least they could do is acknowledge that the ballots were reviewed and Gore lost, lost, and lost again.
Democrats: Stuck on Stupid since 2000.
»→ Bald spots?
May 26, 2008 - 10:12 ET by Cool ArrowWho cares about Jennings and Brokaw?
I can't believe the show brought up the Democrats' 1960 successful coup against Nixon.
I honestly believe the backroom deal in Chicago during the 1960 election is the single most heinous act committed on US soil in the last 50 years.
LYDSEXICS UNTIE!
Over The Top
May 26, 2008 - 10:42 ET by CellaLaura Dern, just as I expected, was a large oaf gesticulating and mugging for the camera.
»→ Cella
May 26, 2008 - 11:38 ET by Cool ArrowI don't think Ms. Dern has gesticles, does she?
LYDSEXICS UNTIE!
Gore's position was never to "count all the votes."
May 26, 2008 - 11:28 ET by Gary HallGore has the bald spots, and the movie, while it did have a few surprising lines) has balding memory.
To the best of my ability to recall the arguments; Boies advised the Florida Supreme Court that the US SC would surely strike them down, if they ordered the statewide recounts.
Like a pack of lost hungry wolves, the Florida Supremes rejected Boies advice and did it anyway w/ JUstice Wells dissenting
. And in the end, Bioes was spot on - the US Supreme Court didn't like it. Big surprise - Gore's team knew it all along.
An interesting piece: CONTESTING THE VOTE: STRATEGY; Gore's Failure to Ask for Manual Statewide Recount May Have Been Critical Mistake. A few excerpts (my bold):
So in the end, the Florida Supreme Court and the US Supreme Court recognized the truth; Gore's position of selectively counting only those counties he desired to count, was not fair, and did not represent the picture painted by the Democrats and the Gore machine - that every vote be counted.
Bush won. Gore sued. Bush won. Had Gore prevailed and won in the courts, then Al Gore could honestly be called the selected president.