Analysis: Neither Bush nor Gore show any sign of quitting

By Alan Elsner/Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- In any poker game, there is a time to hold and a time to fold.

So far, neither Democrat Al Gore nor Republican George W. Bush have given any sign they would be ready to fold as long as they have the political and legal means to keep fighting for the presidency of the United States.

Vice President Gore would face his moment of truth if the Florida Supreme Court rules against his request to include the manual recounts currently under way in three Florida counties in the state's vote total.

That would leave Texas Gov. Bush as the de facto winner of the state's 25 electoral votes subject to further legal challenges and place Gore under tremendous pressure to concede the Nov. 7 election. But there is no assurance he would do so.

The payoff for Gore conceding with grace might be the possibility of extending his political career and making another presidential run in 2004. Neither man wants to look like a sore loser, but neither wants to look like any kind of loser.

If the court rules the recounts can be included, Bush would presumably step up his argument that the manual recounts are not only illegitimate but fraudulent and take his case to the federal court system.

"Each side has set up a scenario where a substantial number of their supporters will not accept the legitimacy of the next president if their man loses," said Catholic University political scientist Mark Rozell.

"That's frightening," he said.

Republican especially seem in no mood to accept a Gore presidency no matter how it is achieved. The feeling among party leaders and many rank-and-file members is that the Gore camp is trying to fix the outcome.

"If it is finished and Republicans in large numbers feel that it was rigged in the sense that you kept on counting until you found a way to win, I think it's going to be very difficult to work with the vice president," said New Mexico's Republican Sen. Pete Domenici.

Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh and conservative columnists like Peggy Noonan, a speechwriter for former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush, have been stoking the emotions of their listeners and readers with accusations that the Democrats are "stealing the election."

"There's going to be a point down the road at which Gore is going to be confirmed a loser, even if he wins with the chicanery going on in all of these endless recounts," Limbaugh said.

"At that point, it will be obvious to anybody that Bugs Bunny could have won if we counted long enough, and as such, it's going to be obvious that a Gore victory on that basis is illegitimate," he said.

Noonan wrote in a recent column: "They are not using hand counting to determine who won; they are using hand counting to win. They are attempting to do this through chicanery, and by interpreting various ballots any way they choose."

Dartmouth College political scientist Lynn Vavreck said conspiracy theorists were surfacing once again as they did throughout the 1999 impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton.

"There's an unproductive conspiracy theory mentality out there which is poisoning the well for whoever wins and for the American people," she said.

"I don't think most people think there's a concerted effort under way to steal the election. Most Americans would like to feel good about the next president, whoever he is. This attitude is damaging the prospects of that happening," Vavreck said.

Nebraska's retiring Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey said Gore had consistently said he would concede the election if and when it became clear he had lost. But Bush had never made any such commitment.

"The question is, are Republicans willing to say that? I mean, they've used words like election fraud and stealing the election. Both of those words are not only irresponsible but paint them in a corner of perhaps not being able to accept the fact that they might lose," Kerrey said.

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