The Associated Press

George W.

Monday, December 04, 2000

George W. Bush flatly asserted Saturday, "I’m soon to be the president" and met with GOP congressional leaders as if to prove it. Al Gore sought a recount before a Florida judge as both candidates awaited a U.S. Supreme Court decision that could untangle their election impasse.

All nine Supreme Court justices were at work, a day after hearing arguments in the case. There was no indication when the high court would rule. Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature arranged to meet in special session Wednesday to consider naming a slate of 25 electors for Bush to protect against any court decision erasing his victory.

Despite the legal challenges, Republicans continued to prod the vice president to abandon his challenge. "George W. Bush is rightfully our president-elect," Ohio Gov. Bob Taft said in the GOP’s weekly radio address. "We should not prolong a constitutional impasse that could prevent the timely transition of presidential power."

Gore spent a quiet day in Washington, chatting over lunch with actor Tommy Lee Jones, his college roommate and longtime friend. Meanwhile, the vice president’s lawyers tried to persuade a judge in Tallahassee to count 14,000 disputed ballots from South Florida. Attorney David Boies said the constested ballots in heavily Democratic Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties could "place in doubt" Bush’s 537-vote victory margin certified by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris. Gore previously has predicted he would win if all the votes were counted.

Bush’s attorneys filed counter motions and said any recount should be expanded to include all votes cast in Volusia and Broward counties, where Gore benefitted from recanvasses shortly after the election. Bush’s lawyers also sought to negate a Seminole County lawsuit filed by Democrats to throw out about 15,000 absentee ballots, which would cost Bush a net of 4,797 votes.