Gore's forces back in fray

By MARY DEJEVSKY

WASHINGTON - In the days since election day, one perception grew into a truism: if victory hinged on the solidarity and enthusiasm of supporters, the election was over and George W. Bush was the winner.

Now, the stakes are more even: Al Gore's troops are back in the fight, united in their candidate's cause.

A succession of senior Democrats - from former Senator and Ireland mediator, George Mitchell, through Democrat elder statesman Mario Cuomo to the Senate and House minority leaders, Tom Daschle and Dick Gephardt - paraded across the television talkshows to insist that right was on their candidate's side.

Not only had new and respected figures rallied to Gore, but the change of tone was remarkable.

Three events are said to have revived Democrats' hopes: the first was last week's Florida Supreme Court ruling in favour of accepting the results of manual recounts. The second was the decision of the United States Supreme Court to hear the Bush campaign's appeal against that ruling, which was seen as putting the election effectively on hold for another week.

But what really riled Democrats were the unruly demonstrations outside the counting rooms in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. For the first time since election day, the cries of "foul play" and "election theft" from Democrats were as loud as those from Republicans.

Contrast that with the previous time an official result was scheduled in Florida. On November 17, Democrats were in a state of near-panic. The Florida Secretary of State, Katherine Harris - a Republican and Bush campaign operative - said she had a statutory duty to declare the state's results the next day.

Once the results were declared, Democrats feared, Bush would declare himself President-elect and Gore would instantly be seen by the American public as the pretender. Any challenge to the result would make Gore seem a bad loser

A tentative whispering campaign already under way in the party was picked up by grateful Republicans and amplified in a write-in and e-mail campaign to party officials and the media. Would it not benefit the party, the argument went, if Gore did the decent thing and conceded defeat sooner rather than later? Among the instigators of this argument were said to be Robert Torricelli, Democratic senator for New Jersey, and a major fundraiser.

Dispatched to Florida to represent the Democrats' case on the military ballot controversy, the retiring senator for Nebraska, Bob Kerrey, went even further. He forecast that if the Florida Supreme Court ruled against the Gore campaign, Gore would indeed throw in the towel.

Now, such talk of defeat has been silenced. Kerrey is nowhere to be seen and Torricelli has quietly been persuaded to change his mind. He was quoted as saying that the fight must go on.

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