WAKE UP AL GORE!Gore has potentially placed a duplicitous Jew, like Lieberman, a heartbeat away from the most powerful, political office in the world, the Presidency of the United States! Since Gore has exposed the world to the Jewish threat for political motives, i.e., choosing Lieberman just to distance himself from Clinton's monkey business, because Lieberman publicly denounced Clinton's poor behavior and/or because Gore thought Lieberman could deliver the Jewish vote in Florida thereby countering Governor Jeb Bush's influence in Florida, Gore has shown extremely bad judgement and does not deserve to be our President.   The Democratic Ticket: The VP Doesn't Need To Hide Behind Lieberman —The Atlanta Journal and Constitution The widely held notion that Al Gore hired on the overtly religious Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut as his running mate in order to wash himself of scandal raises an awkward question. Dare we ask, ''What scandal?'' Two matters are charged against the vice president's account, neither amounting to a hill of beans. Gore phoned for political contributions from the White House using a Democratic National Committee credit card. If that violated the law against fund-rasing on government property —and it probably didn't— the violation was purely technical. The law was meant to prevent elected officials from shaking down government employees. Members of Congress use cell phones to hustle dollars from their offices. The only distinction between that practice and Gore's was that the vice president's phone was tethered. Scandal? Please. [click here to continue]   GOP Likes Lieberman: He Packs No Electoral Punch, Say Bush Aides —Daily News (New York) Texas Gov. George W. Bush's strategists said privately yesterday that they thought Vice President Gore's choice of Joseph Lieberman as his running mate would help Bush win the White House.The Bush aides said they don't see the Connecticut senator bringing Gore any electoral punch — and they believe Lieberman's centrist voting record will allow Bush to play to his strengths by fuzzing differences between him and Gore on key issues. "He's voted for enough of our policy proposals that he blurs the ideological lines between Bush and Gore," one senior Bush adviser said. With Lieberman on the Democratic ticket, the Bush camp can now argue that there's really not that much difference between them on many issues. "If this election comes down to likability, Bush wins easily," a Bush aide said. His campaign quickly released a statement yesterday noting that Bush and running mate Dick Cheney "respect Joe Lieberman for his intelligence, his integrity and for many of the positions he has taken - positions which Gov. Bush and [Secretary] Cheney support but Al Gore has attacked. "From Social Security reform to missile defense, tort reform to parental notification, and from school choice to affirmative action, Al Gore has chosen a man whose positions are more similar to Gov. Bush's than to his own. [click here to continue]   Will Lieberman's Politics, Shaped By His Faith, Help Or Hurt Gore's Chances? —The Houston Chronicle As the first flush of last week's Liebermania subsided, a low-key but provocative debate bubbled up over whether Al Gore's pick for vice president was benefiting from a religious double standard. Specifically, the question centered on why Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, appeared less threatening to the Democratic political machinery than an equally devout Christian. And more importantly, would some of the same historical frictions between faith and politics appear when the candidate in question was Jewish? Part of the answer lies in the fact that Jews are a core part of the Democratic constituency, so liberals are not likely to be alarmed when the religion-shaping policy is historically friendly. About 64 percent of Jews vote on Election Day, and President Clinton won about 80 percent of the Jewish vote in each of his elections. They make up about 2.2 percent of the U.S. population and about 3 percent of the electorate. Lieberman, however, challenges certain political stereotypes about Democrats and Jews. Whether that helps or hurts Gore's presidential bid remains to be seen. Lieberman is a man of deep moral rectitude. He observes the dietary laws of Judaism, and on the Sabbath will not travel, engage in politics, write, or use electricity. Like many Christian politicians, Lieberman says his faith, including religious ethics and texts, greatly informs his politics. "There's no question that my religious upbringing and my religious education was a major contributor to who I am. And who I am determines how I vote on particular issues," he said in a 1997 interview with Reuters. [click here to continue] AMERICAN NOTES: Chicken Chad Recounts AmNote on Presidential Election: It is amazing how Joe Lieberman can go on talk shows and look squarely into the TV cameras and lie to the American people about his voting record on school vouchers, social security, and women rights. In fact Lieberman's position are more conservative than those of Bush. During the VP debate, his every word was calculated to deceive the American people, or at least Democrats, about his true position on the issues; positions which reflect Lieberman's strict Orthodox Jewish views about the separate of Jews from non-Jews and the subservience of women. Too bad Secretary Cheney was being such a gentleman, he could have ripped Lieberman to shreds. Perhaps, Lieberman's name should be pronounce LIE-ber-man.   Al Gore's Flex-O-Joe —The Washington Post It is something to marvel at, in a depressed sort of way, the speed with which Joe Lieberman has misplaced every single one of his best principles, darn it. ("They must be here somewhere. Okay, think, if I were a principle, where would I be?") Lieberman likes to note, these days, that he has never been as far out of the mainstream of the Democratic Party as some people think, that he has always, in fact, been a good liberal. And this is on the whole true enough. Lieberman's Senate voting record has won him high marks from liberal groups and low marks from conservative groups. Nevertheless, there was a difference between Lieberman and the average party hack, and this difference was one that Lieberman cultivated and celebrated. The difference was not that Lieberman was conservative; it was that he was, supposedly, independent--this demonstrated by his repeated willingness to take positions that important constituent groups in the Democratic Party strongly opposed. Yes, there were only a handful of issues on which Lieberman broke with the pack. But these issues--affirmative action, school vouchers, Social Security, Clinton scandals, tort reform--were the core issues that defined what it meant to be a New Democrat. It meant, precisely, standing up to the party's controlling special interests on these litmus tests. Without this, there is no true New Democrat position. It is not an exaggeration to say that the rise of the New Democrats and the rise of Lieberman--and these are nearly synonymous--rest on this handful of stand-up moments. Well, the Democrats' stand-up guy stands no more. Recently Lieberman, the man with the iron backbone, has become Lieberman, the human pretzel, performing, now in the big top, every day, Amazing! Stupendous! Truth-defying! Acts of Contortion, as he erases the man he was and morphs into whatever it is that the people who pull the levers in the party want him to be. A few examples: [click here to continue] AmNote on Presidential Election: Reports that residents of West Palm Beach mistakenly voting for Pat Buchanan instead of Gore may be partially true. However, Jewish voters, in their zeal to put a Jew in the White House, either tried to vote for both Gore and Lieberman by punching the both hole in the butterfly ballot next to Gore's and Lieberman's names, or they just punched the wrong hole near Lieberman's name and not the hole with Gore's name next to the arrow, thereby spoiling their ballots. Natural selection says that if a foolproof voting system is invented, nature will evolve a bigger fool. Gore's selection of Lieberman as running mate may have actually cost Gore votes and the presidential election. Serves him right!   Possible Buchanan Votes Upset Jews —The Denver Post Eighty-eight-year-old Ruth  Schwartzman went to the polls on Election Day swelling with shtolts - intense pride about the chance to vote for Al Gore and running mate Joe Lieberman. Like thousands of voters confused by Palm Beach County's now-infamous 'butterfly ballot,' she's horrified that she may have mistakenly punched a vote for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan. 'I went early because I couldn't wait to vote,' said the longtime resident of Century Village, a predominately Jewish condo complex. 'Now, I don't know who I voted for. Maybe that guy Buchanan. And boy do I feel sick about it.' For Schwartzman and scores of other Jewish retirees, not voting for the Democrats was bad enough. That's the party that best represents their political and social values, many say. It's also the first major party to place a Jewish candidate, Lieberman, on its presidential ballot. Far worse is the possibility they voted for Buchanan, who has been outspoken in his opposition to U.S. aid to Israel and once called Congress an 'Israeli Occupied Territory.' Buchanan has challenged the historical accuracy of whether Nazis killed Jews in gas chambers. Last year, he wrote a book questioning the need for the U.S. to have fought Nazi Germany. 'Buchanan is a hater of Jews, a fascist. And I should know what it's like to live through fascism,' said Kurt Weiss, 77, a Holocaust survivor and Century Village's president. 'Believe me when I tell you that no one in his right mind here would vote for that anti-Semite.' Buchanan's campaign staffers didn't return phone calls Tuesday seeking comment. [click here to continue] AmNote on Presidential Election: NBC's "Meet the Press" Tim Russert and others have insisted for weeks that Florida's electoral college was the key to the election of the President. Yet, knowing its importance, all the major networks called Gore/Lieberman the winner, one hour before the polls closed in the Republican-favored, Florida panhandle counties. Rep. Billy Tauzin, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection, has called for an investigation into the early calling of the winner in Florida. How could the all the major news networks not realize that the polls were still open in Florida? Was the Jewish media trying to sway the vote in favor of the Gore/Lieberman ticket?   Tauzin Reprimands Media About Election Predictions —The Times-Picayune Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-Chackbay, announced Thursday that he was launching an investigation into why the major television networks botched their early presidential predictions Election Day and possibly discouraged some people from voting. Tauzin said that by falsely reporting that Florida was in Vice President Al Gore's column before the polls closed on the West Coast, the networks may have dampened Republican voter turnout for Republican George W. Bush and others. He said it may have cost the GOP several House seats in California and suggested the mistaken reports were tantamount to taking away people's right to vote. "Did Republicans in California decide during those two hours that it wasn't worth going to the polls because the election had already been decided in the East? "Tauzin asked at a Capitol Hill news conference. "When you give people false information that encourages them not to vote, I think that's subtle disenfranchisement. "Tuesday, at about 7:50 p.m. Eastern Time, all of the major networks reported that, based on exit polling, Florida's 25 electoral votes were into Gore's column, all but sealing a victory for him. The projection was rescinded two hours later. Tauzin said the bad information could have contributed to low Republican turnout at the polls in six House districts in California, and may have also affected voting in the Panhandle of Florida, which is in the Central Time Zone. [click here to continue] BUSH WINS: America Dodges a Jew Bullet!The great value of the electoral college was pointed up in this election—otherwise there would be a Jew Vice President in the White House. The lopsided regional popular vote from Jew Hollywood in California and Jew network news in New York would have put Gore/Lieberman in the White House, thereby canceling out the true will of the heartland of America. We as American have to thank the Founding Father for their great wisdom and foresight.   Court Rules For Bush Calls Recount Plan Unfair —The Boston Globe A deeply divided US Supreme Court dealt Al Gore's presidential hopes an apparently fatal blow last night by overturning last week's Florida Supreme Court ruling and declaring the state's methods of recounting votes unfair, unconstitutional, and apparently impossible to fix in time. "Because it is evident that any recount seeking to meet the Dec. 12 date will be unconstitutional . . . we reverse the judgment of the Supreme Court of Florida ordering the recount to proceed," the majority opinion declared, in remanding the case back to the Florida court.    Former secretary of state James A. Baker III said that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were "very pleased and gratified" by the decision. Last night's ruling, coming 35 days after the election, appeared to clear the way for Bush to win Florida's 25 electoral votes and thus gain a narrow victory in the Electoral College on Dec. 18 as well. Gore is expected to indicate his response to the decision today. [click here to continue]