Recount: A Political Polemic About the 2000 Election

Recount, which premiered on HBO recently, is an attempt to retell the month long struggle in November and December of 2000 to determine who won that year's election. It being a Hollywood production, it attempts to be heavily biased toward the Gore people. But unintentionally it demonstrates what a disaster a Gore Administration might have been, especially in the wake of 9/11.

Recount starts when the 2000 Election officially ended, when then Governor George W. Bush's margin of victory in Florida was so narrow that an automatic machine recount was mandated. Gore had conceded the election and then, at the last moment, unconceded the election. Each side gathered their teams of lawyers and political operatives and then went at it in the courts and the streets with the Presidency as prize.

The version of the story told in Recount is the "black legend of 2000" that Democrats have been nursing with their resentments ever since. The narrative goes something like this. A group of high minded, principled people (the Gore team) knew that their man had won and had confidence that the system would eventually prove it. But they were thwarted by another group of mean, ruthless, unprincipled political street brawlers (the Bush people). In short, the narrative ends with "and Bush was elected by a vote of one" Supreme Court Justice.

If Republicans had been telling the story (fat chance in Hollywood) it would have been of a brazen, daylight attempt to steal a Presidential election by people who had been stealing elections since Tammany Hall in the 19^th Century. Memories of 1960, when Democrat political machines in Illinois and Texas swung the election to JFK, still resonated. If the Republicans behaved ruthlessly, it was because this time they would not be rolled over and would fight fire with fire. In short, the Democrats, unlike depicted in Recount, were no nebbish Boy Scouts.

The portrait of the Gore team, led by Warren Christopher played by John Hurt, and then by Ron Klain played by Kevin Spacey, is a study in political arrogance and tactical incompetence. The Gore people make one mistake after another, trying to recount only Democratic counties for example, and trying to suppress the votes of soldiers and sailors serving overseas. Denis Leary plays Gore operative Michael Whouley and Ed Begley Jr. plays Gore lawyer David Boies.

By contrast, the Bush team, led by Bush retainer James Baker, played by Tom Wilkinson, is competent and on top of their game. As depicted in the movie, the Bushites know that their goal is not to look good, rather it is the win. They are willing and able to do so by any means within the law, even by stealing a play from the Democrats' book and stir up a little street protest theater of their own.

The viewer, if he or she is thinking clearly, will go down on bended knee and thank God it was the ruthless, competent team that was in place on 9/11 and not the dithering, incompetent Boy Scouts. One suspects, though, that most Democrats will not think this, but will seethe with rage at the "stolen election."

Recount does capture with great alacrity the farce of the dimpled and hanging chad hand recount, which spiraled quickly out of control into something surreal. There's lots of chest thumping about "counting every vote" (except those of servicemen), even if the "intent" of the vote has to be arrived at by psychic deduction. Here are the seasoned citizens crying about accidentally voting for Pat Buchannan. There is the so-called "Brooks Brothers riot" that stopped a secret recount.

The person who comes out best in Recount is oddly enough James Baker, cool, competent, erudite, with a sense of humor. He is even humanized with a story of how he became a Republican in middle age thanks to the kindness of one George H. W. Bush after Baker's wife had died untimely.

The person who comes out worse, not surprisingly, is Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, played by Laura Dern. Even many Republicans think that Ms. Harris was out of her depth, but Dern's portrayal is a cartoon, with as much likely resemblance to the real Katherin Harris as if she were playing in a sketch on Saturday Night Live.

Recount, despite its attention to detail and some genuinely great moments, can't be seen as history. It is an attempt at a political polemic that fails to be convincing, except to the already convinced. Still it is not as horribly biased as it could have been and is thus worth at least one watch, followed by an argument over who stole what and from whom.