Friday, December 12, 2014

December 12 - Recount

Today’s movie is political drama with a scene that happens on December 12. Watch it tonight and enjoy.

RECOUNT                           

On election day 2000 trouble appears early in Florida regarding ballot difficulties. The television networks flip-flop on calling Florida for Gore, then Bush. Gore telephones a concession to Bush. His staff has to race to stop Gore from publicly conceding because the election is so close a machine recount is mandatory and Gore withdraws his concession. Gore makes a mistake in asking the milquetoast Warren Christopher to lead the fight in Florida. We get a lecture about what a chad is. Bush’s team refuses to negotiate. A hand recount is started in Palm Beach County. Ron Klain takes over the Gore team. A state judge rules a hand recount not needed, but the Florida Supreme Court reverses this.  Clear evidence emerges that the Republicans excluded people from voting as felons when they in fact were not felons and the Repblicans knew they were not felons. Katherine Harris, the Florida Secretary of State and co-chair of Bush’s Florida campaign certifies the election result for Bush. The lawsuit seeking to stop her and get a hand recount loses in circuit court, but again the Florida Supreme Court reverses and orders a hand recount. Bush appeals to the US supreme Court which orders a stop to the hand recount. After a hearing, the US Supreme court, on December 12, 2000 [1:37:42 to 1:43:23] in an intellectually dishonest opinion rules that even though they stopped the recount, since it could not be completed by the deadline for the electoral college to meet it cannot continue. Gore gives up.

A movie about a very sad period in American history. The United States Supreme Court revealed it was willing to cast aside it’s long tradition of impartiality to reach a intellectually dishonest decision to promote a partisan positon.  Gore should have fought on.

The Perfect Tie by James Caesar and Andrew E. Busch (Bowman and Littlefield, Publishers, Lanham, Md., 2001) at page 198 give the date of the decision

Producers - Michael Hausman, Danny Strong, Len Amato, Jay Roach, Sydney Pollack and Paula Weinstein

Director - Jay Roach

Screenplay - Danny Strong

Awards – The movie won the Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special, Outstanding Made for Television Movie and the Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries or a Movie Emmys. It was also nominated for the Outstanding Art Direction for a Miniseries or Movie, Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie (Spacey), Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie (Wilkinson), Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie (Balaban), Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie (Leary), Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie (Dern) and the Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special Emmys at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards

Runtime – 1 hour 56 minutes

Released – May 5, 2008

Starring –

Kevin Spacey as Ron Klain
John Hurt as Warren Christopher
Laura Dern as Katherine Harris
Tom Wilkinson as James Baker
Denis Leary as Michael Whouley
Ed Begley, Jr. as David Boies
Bob Balaban as Benjamin Ginsberg
Bruce McGill as Mac Stipanovich
Paul Jeanes as Ted Olson
Bruce Altman as Mitchell Berger
Alex Staggs as Craig Waters
Doug Williford as Mark Fabiani
Gary Basaraba as Clay Roberts
Stefen Laurantz as Joe Allbaugh
Mitch Pileggi as Bill Daley
Jayne Atkinson as Theresa LePore
Marcia Jean Kurtz as Carol Roberts
Mary Bonner Baker as Kerey Carpenter
Bob Kranz as Bob Butterworth
Raymond Forchion as Jeff Robinson
Steve DuMouchel as John Hardin Young
Marc Macaulay as Robert Zoellick
Antoni Corone as Tom Feeney
Matt Miller as Jeb Bush
Terry Loughlin as William Rehnquist
Judy Clayton as Sandra Day O'Connor
William Schallert as John Paul Stevens
Bruce Gray as Anthony Kennedy
Michael Bryan French as David Souter
Howard Elfman as Stephen Breyer
Jack Shearer as Antonin Scalia
Benjamin Clayton as Clarence Thomas
Candice Critchfield as Judge Myriam Lehr
Robert Small as George J. Terwilliger III
Patricia Getty as Margaret D. Tutwiler
James Carrey as Chris Lehane
Brent Mendenhall as George W. Bush
Grady Couch as Al Gore
Carole Wood as Tipper Gore

Copyright by Ivan Walters in 2014.


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