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Whatever happens now, nearly half the country will believe this Presidential election was stolen. Many Democrats are convinced that a partisan Republican Secretary of State in Florida wanted to rush certification of a phony George W. Bush victory rather than wait for an accurate vote count. Many Republicans believe that backers of Vice-President Al Gore are trying to encourage recount after recount until they finally end up with more votes. "They're going to steal the election," South Dakota Governor Bill Janklow declared Nov. 18 at the Republican Governors Assn. in Tampa. "Nobody wants to lose the game and feel they got cheated out of it."
On that last thought, both sides can agree. The question is, what can the ultimate winner -- whoever he is -- do to bring the nation together and convince the losing half of the electorate that he is not a fraudulent aberration? Here are a few unsolicited suggestions:
An early summit meeting of the two candidates. This is the easiest way to begin healing the wounds. The eventual winner immediately should pay a visit to the home of the losing candidate. The loser should declare that, despite the bitterness and accusations (however valid), it's important that the nation unite behind the winner. Easier said than done. But it needs to be said. Quickly.
A Cabinet that crosses party lines. Bill Clinton, like Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon before him, has included a member of the opposition party in his Cabinet. In Clinton's case, it's Defense Secretary William Cohen, a former Republican senator from Maine. But because of the partisan passions unleashed by the Florida fiasco, it's incumbent upon the next President to pick a truly bipartisan Cabinet, not simply tokenism.
The Texas governor could start by picking a conservative Democrat such as former Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn of Georgia as Defense Secretary, or Texas Representative Charles Stenholm as Agriculture Secretary. An even bolder gambit would be to choose retiring North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt, a moderate whose school reforms served as a model for many of Bush's Texas policies, as Education Secretary.
Republican consultant Scott Reed has suggested former House Budget Committee Chairman Bill Gray, a liberal Democrat now serving as president of the United Negro College Fund, as Education Secretary. But the strongest signal Bush could send would be to offer Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee Joseph I. Lieberman, who has a history of bipartisanship, a key position in his Administration.
If Gore ends up in the White House, he should tap former New Hampshire Senator Warren Rudman or former Missouri Senator John A. Danforth for Attorney General. He could ask Colin Powell -- Bush's choice for Secretary of State -- to handle the same job in a Gore Administration. He might ask outgoing House International Relations Committee Chairman Ben Gilman or a Republican CEO such as General Electric's Jack Welch to run the Pentagon. Or he could reach out to an innovative GOP governor such as Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin to run the Health & Human Services Dept.
True bipartisanship on Capitol Hill. It'll take more than a few kind words and a couple of make-love-not-war dinners at the White House. To lower the toxic level of partisanship on Capitol Hill, it'll be necessary to allow leaders of the losing party to help shape the new President's legislative agenda. And it would be smart to work in good faith to achieve agreement across the legislative aisle on several top issues: tax cuts, education reform, an HMO Patients' Bill of Rights, and a new drug benefit for seniors.
It won't be easy. House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) already has upped the ante by accusing the Democrat-dominated Florida Supreme Court of short-circuiting a Bush victory. The court's action "reeks of radical judicial activism," DeLay thundered on Nov. 18. Some conservative firebrands have threatened to reject a possible Gore victory next January when Congress completes its constitutional duty of reviewing the Electoral College returns.
Armey & Co. need to tone down the rhetoric. Democrats could well decide to play partisan hardball in hopes of regaining control of Congress in 2002 and the White House two years later. History would be on the Democrats' side: No President who received fewer popular votes than his opponent has ever won a second term.
Power-sharing on Capitol Hill. It's a radical concept, but desperate times call for innovative solutions. If Bush becomes President, he would be in a good position to encourage his Republican colleagues on Capitol Hill to give Democrats a say in running the House and Senate. The two parties are nearly tied in both chambers, but Republicans have been insisting on dictating everything from scheduling to committee ratios. The atmosphere is so tense that, in the House, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt went months this year without sitting down together.
That must change. A few ideas: Republicans could give Democrats a co-chairmanship of a few committees. At a minimum, the partisan ratios on the committees should better reflect the narrow majorities. Republicans should remember this: If they're tyrannical with a narrow majority, they could well face tyrannical Democrats running a Democratic Congress in two years. That's something a possible President George W. Bush wouldn't want to face.
Campaign reform. Whoever wins, Gore and Bush should get together to propose a "unity" campaign-reform package that would cover everything from national ballot-counting (and recounting) standards to campaign-finance reform. Arizona Senator John McCain could play a key role as mediator and congressional champion of the plan. It would be necessary for all sides to compromise to achieve bipartisan consensus, but an overhaul of the country's problem-plagued election process would be both a symbol of national renewal and a real step forward.
The Florida showdown has not yet reached a crisis stage, and Americans seem patient to let the process play out, at least for now. A Newsweek Poll conducted Nov. 16-17 found that 61% of Americans say it's more important to take time to "remove all reasonable doubt" about the winner than it is to get the matter "resolved as soon as possible."
That patience won't last forever -- especially as the partisan rhetoric escalates. (Example: Tennessee Republican Senator Fred Thompson's Nov. 19 declaration on ABC TV's This Week that "the dogs of war have been unleashed in Florida.") To bind the wounds of bitter partisanship, the next President has a moral obligation to take extraordinary steps. Anything less would be an abdication of leadership.
Dunham is a White House correspondent for Business Week's Washington bureau. He contributes to the Washington Watch column twice a month on BW Online Edited by Douglas Harbrecht
Copyright 2000, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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