Tony Clark says Bush camp confident of Supreme Court victory

November 24, 2000
Web posted at: 10:39 p.m. EST (0339 GMT)

CNN National Correspondent Tony Clark is covering the Bush camp in Austin, Texas, and reports on its mood and how it was distracted briefly by football.

Q: Are all eyes in Texas focused on the election battle going on in the courts?

Tony Clark

CLARK: Just like a week ago when attention in Florida shifted briefly from the election controversy to football with Florida playing Florida State, Friday here in Austin, attention shifted from the election to football with Texas playing A&M. (Texas won, 43-17)

Gov. George W. Bush is spending much of Thanksgiving holiday weekend at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, but he is staying in close touch with his surrogates in Florida.

Q: What's the reaction from the Bush camp to the U.S. Supreme Court decision to accept Bush's appeal?

CLARK: Words like "pleased" and "heartened." It was obviously good news for the campaign. Ben Ginsberg, one attorney for the Bush campaign, said the court will now review whether it is fair to change the rules in the middle of the game. That's an accusation we have heard from the Bush camp ever since the ruling from the Florida Supreme Court came down. James Baker, the campaign point man in Florida, initially blasted the Florida Supreme Court for rewriting the law and those sentiments were echoed by Gov. Bush himself. The Bush campaign feels they won in Florida and there's an effort to take that victory away from them and they're pleased to have a chance to fight before the U.S. Supreme Court for what they feel is their victory.

Q: How do they answer Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman's charges that Republican demonstrators are intimidating election officials?

CLARK: They think the Democrats are using a double standard. They say specifically that Lieberman was not upset that Jesse Jackson led thousand of demonstrators in Florida in support of Al Gore. And now he's upset about pro-Bush supporters voicing their opinion . The Bush campaign says that it's another example of the Gore campaign saying one thing and doing another. Also, in response to request by Lieberman that the Bush campaign should try to reign in supporters, one campaign spokesman said, "I don't think it's our place to do that.

Q: Are they concerned that, if elected, Bush may not seem a president of the people, but of the courts?

CLARK: They haven't addressed that specifically; what they have said very emphatically is that they won in Florida, which would give the presidency to Bush because of electoral votes. They believe very strongly that he was rightfully elected president of the United States and there is an attempt to take it away from him.

Q: Could any of the visitors to Bush's ranch be people who might be sounded out for cabinet positions?

CLARK: We haven't heard much about a transition ever since the first few days after the election. At that time, Bush was talking with people at the governor's mansion about the transition and was very open about it. But he got a lot of criticism. While he and Dick Cheney have been talking about things lately, the public display of transition has disappeared.