Gore prepares to step aside

11:00 AM

WASHINGTON - Democrat Al Gore has abandoned his fight for the White House and drafted his valedictory address as Republican George W. Bush prepares to declare victory and claim the presidency.

Gore campaign chairman William Daley said in a statement that Gore had directed the committee he had appointed to fight for a recount of votes in Florida to close down.

"The vice president has directed his recount committee to suspend activities. He will address the nation this evening [3pm today NZ time]," Daley said, following yesterday's narrow Supreme Court decision to bar further recounts of votes in Florida.

Bush, the son of former President George Bush, would follow with his own address one hour after Gore, finally laying claim to the title of president-elect.

Senior politicians from both parties said Gore's address to the nation would be important in helping the nation bind its wounds after a ferocious political struggle that went 36 days beyond Election Day.

"I do think the vice president's tone will be extremely important. I've seen other senators say the most important speech at this juncture will be the one that is made by the loser rather than the winner," said Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott.

Democratic sources said Gore would call Bush at some point during the day before his TV address. The sources said Gore would tell the nation he was ending his campaign but would not specifically concede defeat, after an election in which he gained more votes than Bush, the governor of Texas.

Gore and Bush spoke twice on Election Night. In their first conversation, Gore conceded the election to Bush. Less than an hour later, with the result in Florida too close to call, he phoned again and withdrew his concession, telling Bush not to be so "snippy" about it.

Campaign spokesman Dan Bartlett said the Texas governor would speak to Americans from the chambers of the state's House of Representatives where, in a sign of the bipartisanship Bush hopes to bring to Washington, he will be introduced by the Democratic speaker Pete Laney.

"I think it will be a very gracious and thoughtful address to begin the healing process of the country," Bartlett said. Bush was expected to speak for between 10 and 12 minutes.

Lott, a Mississippi Republican, said Bush would "reach out and bring the country together."

Gore's address, 5 weeks and one day after the Nov. 7 election, will allow Bush to move ahead with his long-delayed transition. Bush will be sworn in as president on Jan. 20.

Republican vice presidential candidate Richard Cheney visited congressional Republicans to discuss transition issues but declined to speak in public until Gore's address.

Bush's biggest initial task will be to try to unite the country after a bitter period of partisan strife and legal wrangling since one of the closest elections in US history. But he has a tremendously tough task ahead, taking office after the election was essentially decided by a 5-4 vote of the US Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court decision yesterday came as the final crushing blow to Gore after a 5-week roller coaster ride in which he struggled mightily to erase a narrow Bush lead in Florida. The court stopped any further recounts, saying there was no time to get them done before the Electoral College meets on Monday (Tuesday NZ time) to pick the next president.

The vice president met with aides at his Washington home to digest the convoluted decision, but the consensus soon emerged there was no way to continue the struggle.

"There is no appeal from the US Supreme Court," said Gore lawyer David Boies.

Bush will take the helm of a divided nation. The Democrats and Republicans are tied 50-50 in the Senate, leaving presumptive Vice President Dick Cheney with the deciding vote. The Republicans have a wafer-thin majority of less than 10 votes in the 435-member House of Representatives.

Just as the country split down the middle every agonized step of the election, some Democratic leaders were urging Gore to keep on fighting despite the Supreme Court decision.

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who has headed calls for an investigation into allegations that thousands of blacks, who vote overwhelmingly Democrat, were impeded from voting in Florida, said Gore should not concede in the state he needed to carry to win the presidency.

He called for "massive nonviolent demonstrations" nationwide to coincide with a holiday honoring slain civil rights Martin Luther King in mid-January. "We will not surrender our franchise," he said in an interview on NBC News.

Joe Andrew, the party's national chairman, insisted it was not yet time to concede defeat. "I don't think so. We're fighting for a position here, a principle here that's very important," he said on the CBS television.

Ed Rendell, who shares power with Andrew as the party's general chairman, issued an outright call yesterday for Gore to quit. But today he said it was up to the vice chairman to "see if the door has been left ajar."

The nation's highest court voted 5-4 to overturn the Florida Supreme Court ruling allowing a hand recount. Those recounts were crucial to Gore's hopes of overtaking Bush and winning the election.

Justice John Paul Stevens said in his dissent: "Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law."

The other dissenters were Justices David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. In the majority opposing recounts were Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.

- REUTERS

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