From: Michael Wiik (mwiik@messagenet.com)
Date: Thu May 01 2003 - 13:04:07 MDT
Interesting alternate history scenario. I found it amusing anyway.
Actually, I agree with every word in it.
-Mike
<<President Gore: A Look Back
by Ted Rall
DAYTON, OHIO--Few political observers anticipated the widespread
resentment that followed Al Gore's controversial assumption of the
presidency in December 2000. "The U.S. Supreme Court merely adhered to
the Constitution when it refused to hear Bush's appeal of the Florida
ruling," notes a Harvard law professor now living in exile in France.
"Federal courts have no jurisdiction over election disputes, which in
the United States are a state matter." Although the ensuing recount
ultimately gave Florida to Gore by a comfortable thousand-vote margin,
Republicans refused to accept the results. Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh
continued to refer to Gore as "Vice President Gore" and
"Resident-in-Chief" and listed the time remaining in Gore's first term
as "days left in captivity for the American people."
Republican candidate George W. Bush, meanwhile, refused to concede
defeat. "Make no mistake," the former Texas governor declared from
self-proclaimed "internal exile" in Crawford, Texas, "that man will
never be my president." The GOP filed a slew of lawsuits challenging the
election results, and right-wing militia groups issued dark threats
about overthrowing Gore's "illegal junta."
[...]
Incredibly, the next move of the man dubbed "Gore out of control" by Fox
News was to declare an unprovoked war on Iraq. "Saddam Hussein has
weapons of mass destruction, he's an evil dictator and he's a threat to
world peace," Gore railed to a joint session of Congress. When the
United Nations refused to support Gore's request for an international
coalition, even Congressional Democrats decided that they had had enough
of their bellicose leader, and joined their counterparts across the
aisle. "There's no proof that Saddam Hussein has WMDs," declared Senate
Majority Leader Tom Daschle. "Until that changes, we have no grounds for
a preemptive strike--an act that violates every precept of international
law." Nonetheless, Gore relied on the War Powers Act to order in the
Marines.
As we know, Saddam Hussein didn't use nuclear, biological or chemical
weapons to defend his dying regime. American forces never found any. And
news soon began leaking that Gore was awarding lucrative Iraqi
rebuilding contracts to oil companies that had contributed to his 2000
campaign. A Gallup poll showed that 88 percent of Americans considered
Gore a liar, and that 79 percent favored his removal from office and
prosecution for the wanton murder of thousands of Iraqis. As Iraq
degenerated into sectarian violence amid growing signs of a possible
radical Islamic revolution, Gore brazenly categorized the mayhem he had
wrought on an innocent people as liberation. "They don't know it yet,"
he proclaimed, "but they'll thank us for this someday."
[...]
What will it take for the American people to turn this madman out on his
ear once and for all? It's impossible to say. As things stand now, he
could put babies on the White House menu and claim he was fighting
overpopulation.>>
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0430-04.htm
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