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| POLITICAL WRAP | |
 December 15, 2000  |
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Shields and Gigot discuss the completed election and the road ahead.
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JIM LEHRER: Some final words now from Shields and Gigot, syndicated columnist Mark Shields, Wall Street Journal columnist Paul Gigot. Mark, what would you like to share with us at the end of this remarkable week?
JIM LEHRER: Do you feel the same way, Paul? PAUL GIGOT: Feel the same.... MARK SHIELDS: Thief.
JIM LEHRER: Would you feel that way if Al Gore had ended up being president of the United States? Would you say hey, Jim, the system worked? PAUL GIGOT: Depends on how he would have won, Jim. If he would have won with a 4-3 verdict of the Florida Supreme Court, no way would I have felt that. JIM LEHRER: Mark, do you feel the system worked because the Supreme Court of the United States by a 5-4 vote gave it to George W. Bush? |
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| The system worked | ||||||||||||||||||||
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MARK SHIELDS: I think the system worked. I don't think justice was done. I think that Al Gore showed enormous respect and great example, almost an inspiration for following the rule of law. It was the rule of law that triumphed. He accepted a decision, which he disagreed with not simply because it went against him but because for many people it was indefensible, and not simply the political, just the legal and logical argument for it. But I do think the rule of law prevailed and that in the final analysis is the greatest tribute.
PAUL GIGOT: I think he has done fine, Jim. I've actually been impressed -- more impressed by how he behaved during this controversy. And I say that because at first he looked, I think, it's fair to say, a little bit shaky. He didn't have that great sense of command that you like to see right after an election. But then I think he did something very smart, two things. One is he delegated. He got Jim Baker in there and Baker handled all of this, the public and the legal strategy. And he dropped from sight. Bush I thought was very wise to be silent. He knew this controversy was polarizing. He knew that if he ended up being president, he didn't want to have to have spent capital on that. And much less than Vice President Gore, he was behind the scenes. I think that was shrewd and shows a certain sense... I don't know.... JIM LEHRER: He caught some heat for it -- saying who is the president-elect, is it Dick Cheney or is it George W. Bush? PAUL GIGOT: In the modern world, we're supposed to be defined by news cycles. We have to get that spin out there. We have got to get on the evening news and have the story and beat the other guy. But I think that he didn't spend... he didn't spend his reputation fighting this fight. And I think that is going to stand him well as the days go on. JIM LEHRER: How do you feel about George W. Bush since Wednesday? MARK SHIELDS: I feel he is president-elect and.... JIM LEHRER: Yes, Mark, I know that.
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| Governing from the middle | ||||||||||||||||||||
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JIM LEHRER: Paul, are there conservatives in the Republican Party who are going to put up with his governing from the middle and making deals with liberal Democrats in order to get things done? PAUL GIGOT: The answer to that is it depends on the nature of the deal, Jim. I mean, I think he is going to get a wide latitude first of all. JIM LEHRER: Why is he going to get it?
JIM LEHRER: Mark, how should the Democrats play this? I noticed John Breaux went down there today and was very pleasant but said no thanks, I don't want to serve in your cabinet. Is that going to be the answer George W. Bush is going to get from most Democrats -- this is terrific bipartisanship but count me out?
JIM LEHRER: But couldn't they make a deal and say, hey - MARK SHIELDS: Or appoint a very weak Democrat who couldn't get reelected. So I think that, and John Breaux knows that. I don't know if John Breaux wants to be a cabinet officer, but he knows it will be the kiss of death for his political career in the sense that Democrats will look upon it as betrayal. I think if there are going to be Democrats out of the Congress in the cabinet, it would probably be Democrats who hold House districts the Democrats could not keep like Charlie Stenholm in west Texas in all likelihood…. Those are the types.... MARK SHIELDS: Well, I'll tell you -- it's two things that are working for the Democrats to cooperate with George W. Bush. The first is that the leaders of the Democratic Party, namely Dick Gephardt and to an increasing degree Tom Daschle in the Senate, are now mentioned as national candidates. They don't want to be in the position... Dick Gephardt ran in 1988 himself, he's wanted to be speaker of the House. But if he is going to run for president or thinking about it or Tom Daschle's thinking about national office, he doesn't want to be seen as an obstructionist or someone that is small and petty and not ready for the national scene. And secondly, the Democrats are the party of governance. They like to govern; they like to legislate. Republicans are the ones who oppose things. So when he proposes, they'll respond. JIM LEHRER: We have plenty of time to talk about this over the next several weeks and months. Thank you both very much. |
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MARK
SHIELDS: A woman I know, a professional woman who was walking downtown
Washington yesterday with her coat on. She still had her Gore-Lieberman
button on. And a man she had never seen before in her life dressed in
a bow-tie, a professional man, said, "Sore loser." In which
she responded immediately, "Thief." It was embarrassment.
That really is the feeling, and I thought Alan Wolfe captured his own
feelings and I think that's... and Michael Novak was right in the sense
of political activists. There is a great gulf that hasn't closed in
spite of all the very admirable and very welcome and very necessary
speaking of healing on both sides. 
PAUL
GIGOT: No. I do feel that exists and it's going to take a long time
to get over and I think maybe the entire Bush presidency among the activists
frankly. But I think that in a bigger sense, it's my... as my liberal
friends used to say after the Watergate scandal, the system worked.
It barely worked. We stretched it; we stretched the bounds of trust
but in the end the institutions did hold and it showed that you could,
the framers in their genius, designed a system that could tolerate great
controversies and yet still confer legitimacy. 
JIM
LEHRER: How has George W. Bush handled himself as president-elect so
far? He has only had three days, but what kind of marks would you give
him, Paul? 
MARK
SHIELDS: He is obviously doing something right because his pastor yesterday
in Austin said that God had chosen George Bush to lead the people and
compared him to Moses; that must have been some contribution to the
church building fund that he made because I don't know any pastor who's
spoken about anybody in this broadcast that way. But I do say -- following
up on your point about Dick Cheney, the favorite indoor sport of Washington
is making fun of vice presidents. That is not the case. Dick Cheney
is seen as the person who is in charge, he's sort of the super chief
of staff of the administration beyond the White House. And I think that
President Bush has been fine. What he does well, Jim, is small groups.
He doesn't do a set speech well. I thought he did -- the Texas legislature
was a good compromise. The two appearances he made on television prior
to that, it did look like a hostage tape and it looked like he was talking
under duress. But I think that he is very comfortable... and that will
be his strength in dealing with Congress, is in small groups, on a personal
basis, something that Bill Clinton never mastered in eight years. 
PAUL
GIGOT: Well, because this is the first time Republicans have controlled
the whole shooting match, the legislature and the executive since 1953.
And I think they do feel that they'd better do pretty well by it, or
at least they should. The Republicans I'm talking to I think feel that
way. They also know that you can govern much better from the executive
than you can from the legislature. And I think they've learned that
they couldn't get a lot of things done over the last six years, since
they took over, so they're going to need executive leadership. But I
think there will be a certain wariness that is a residue, frankly, from
his father's administration, which is that we're going to look at what
the deals are. But I think many of them expect that some of these compromises
they are not going to like. What they want to get is some compromises
on the things that they want. 
MARK
SHIELDS: Well, Jim, the Senate is split 50-50. There is a Republican
governor of Louisiana. If John Breaux would accept anything that was
offered, if it had been offered, the Republican governor of Louisiana,
Mike Foster, would appoint a Republican. 
JIM
LEHRER: In general terms, Mark, what is in it for the Democrats to make
George W. Bush's promise of bipartisanship stick and work?