I'm soon-to-be President: Bush

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, DEC. 3. The outcome of the November 7 U.S. presidential election continued to be argued in a Florida Circuit court on Saturday by lawyers of the Gore and Bush campaigns while a confident Texas Governor, Mr. George W. Bush, declared himself as ``soon-to-be President''.

Lawyers of the two sides battled it out in the Leon County court with each side calling on two witnesses and scoring some points with the judge, Mr. Sanders Sauls. They will return to the court today in a bid to wrap up arguments.

The Vice-President, Mr. Al Gore's team has asked the judge to count some 14,000 ballots which, in its view, were never counted as they were rejected by the machine. The Bush team said the case did not merit attention, but if the judge agreed to the Democratic petition, the recount should cover all ballots and not just the so-called rejected ones. Besides, the recount should not be confined to the Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

Each of the two sides claimed that the first day's hearing in Mr. Sauls' court went in its favour. The Bush team said the Democrats' first star witness, Mr. Kimball Brace of Election Data Services, conceded that dimples on ballots could be caused by handling. ``If I were to rub my finger across it, it could create an indentation and that obviously should not be counted as an intention to vote.''

A judge, Mr. Charles Burton, who was involved in the Palm Beach counting, said it was clear that certain votes had been cast for a candidate even though the computer had not picked them up. This, the Gore team said, was a point in its favour.

Lawyers for Mr. Bush complained that political bias had an impact in the hand recounts in the Volusia and Broward counties where Mr. Gore got nearly 700 additional votes. The Grand Old Party also asked the judge to certify the Seminole county results ``legal and proper''.

Meanwhile, the president of the Florida Senate, Mr. John McKay, said he was not yet prepared to call a special session to choose the State's 25 electors, who are expected to vote for Mr. Bush. This runs counter to the statement, earlier, of the House Majority leader, Mr. Mike Fasano, a Republican, that the session would be convened on Wednesday. In the view of the State Senate leader, a special session now would only add to the confusion.

At his Texas ranch, Mr. Bush continued the act of ``soon-to-be President'' and conferred with the Senate Majority Leader, Mr. Trent Lott, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Dennis Hastert.

The meeting which also saw the participation of Mr. Dick Cheney, is said to have discussed legislative priorities for the new Congress.

``I'm soon-to-be the insider. I'm soon-to-be the President,'' Mr. Bush said adding he was keen on reaching out to the Democrats. According to his advisers, he may consider appointing a number of Democrats in his administration.

It was a rather quiet Saturday for the Vice-President who was seen strolling on Wisconsin Avenue with his wife and daughter and dropping by Starbucks for a cup of coffee.

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