Someone else channels the Daily Howler

One would think that Bob "the Daily Howler" Somerby would be pleased to read things like the following. (He has been rather hard to please lately, though.) Reed Hundt at TPM Cafe wrote on 01/25/06 about what Somerby calls the press corps' "War on Gore".

Let's start with Al Gore. He was the subject of never-ending ridicule from [New York Times columnist Maureen] Dowd while he was in the White House, while he ran against George Bush, and since that date. Many of her colleagues at the Times and most other mainstream media writers have for years repeatedly disparaged Al on a variety of personal grounds, burying as deep as they could his obvious qualifications for the Presidency. They have distorted facts, exaggerated minor matters, and ignored major advantageous comparisons between Gore and his political rivals.

Despite all that, Gore won the popular vote nationally by a reasonably large margin. More important, perhaps, researchers have demonstrated that by a margin as high as 100,000 he prevailed in the popular vote in Florida as it was cast. Specifically, a very large number of voters, particularly in African-American precincts, punched the Gore chad, did not leave it hanging, but emphasized their vote by writing in Gore's name. The machines did not count their ballots because the handwriting negated the punch. These Gore votes would have been counted in any statewide recount by hand.

The Gore lawyers erred by not seeking a statewide recount until dangerously late in the process; the Florida Supreme Court dithered; but in the end the statewide recount would have occurred and the Florida electors would have voted for Gore, but of course the Supreme Court voted on strict partisan lines to stop the counting, even though they were so ashamed by their reasoning that they declared the case not to be precedent. (my emphasis)

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