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Saturday Morning News

Frank Cerabino Discusses the Florida Recount

Aired November 18, 2000 - 10:48 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: For years, Palm Beach County was the Florida playground of a past president: John F. Kennedy. For the last 11 days, it's been a focal point of a heated battle for the next president.

We're going to get an inside look now at Palm Beach County from a real insider: Frank Cerabino. He's a staff writer and columnist with "The Palm Beach Post," and he joins us live this morning from West Palm.

We thank you very much for your time today. I've got to tell you, I out a kick out of reading a couple of your past columns and your characterizations of some of the players involved here.

You've actually been inside the station there where they've been counting the ballots, correct?

FRANK CERABINO, "THE PALM BEACH POST": Yes, I have, Leon. How are you doing?

HARRIS: All right, good. Tell me -- just give us a picture or an idea of what the mood is like inside there. What's the scene like?

CERABINO: Well, it's kind of like a library, really, where it's sort of like a combination between a library and an FBI lab. It seems like the way they handle these cards, it almost seems like they;'re looking for fingerprints. They handle them very delicately, they touch the cards on the outside and they try not to touch them with two hands and everybody's sort of leaning over each other's shoulder checking and very quiet in there.

And as one of our reporters said in our paper today, it's so quiet you can almost hear a chad drop.

HARRIS: Well speaking of the infamous chads, now, have you seen anything funny happening with that? I know you mentioned something about there possibly being a chance for...

CERABINO: Yes, yes.

HARRIS: ... chad chicanery.

CERABINO: Well, yes, you know, a week ago nobody really knew what a chad was, and now suddenly everybody does. I mean, they're selling T-shirts on the street that say "Got Chad?" you know. I thought Jesse Jackson missed an opportunity. You know, he was here earlier in the week, and he had a chance, I thought, to make up a few chad rhymes, you know? And he didn't do it. I thought, you know, if the chad's not fully mounted, it's a Gore vote fully counted, something like that. But he left town.

And so then the Republicans came in, and they sort of took over the chad public relations board. They were chanting on the street, no more chad, no more chad. And they're collecting -- this is what I find really funny -- they're going around in the counting center and they're looking for little pieces of chad on the floor and they're collecting chad and using these...

HARRIS: You're kidding.

CERABINO: No, they're using these dropped chad pieces as a way of saying that the [process is tainted. So there are chad collectors. I wouldn't doubt that someday we'll find, like, little pieces of chad going for sale on eBay for thousands of dollars.

HARRIS: If that happens, man, I've got to interview the guy that actually buys any.

CERABINO: Yes, how can you tell if it's authentic chad, you know? I mean, that's the thing, you know?

HARRIS: You might need the FBI lab for that one. Have you seen...

CERABINO: You could, you could.

HARRIS: Have you seen any -- I mean, anything strange inside the room besides folks sniffing the floor for chad?

CERABINO: No -- well that's strange enough. No, I -- what's the real strange part is that every once in a while people rush outside here and they either say that the process is going great or that it's a complete charade in there, depending on if you're a Republican or a Democrat...

HARRIS: Yes.

CERABINO: ... And the Republicans are going on -- going out and making it seem like this is a complete mockery of justice, and the Democrats are saying, you know, everything is going really smooth in there. So what's really good about it, at least, is that it's televised and you can actually see what's going on in there. It's not a closed room where people just emerge and announce counts...

HARRIS: Yes.

CERABINO: ... And it's really quite boring. The ultimate thing is that it's very boring.

HARRIS: Well it hasn't been too boring outside. We have to go, but I've got to ask you real quickly, who do you think has had the best protest outside?

CERABINO: The best protest, I would say -- you know, the Democrats had the edge earlier in the week, and then the Republican kind of took over. I think what happened is that when Katherine Harris came out Wednesday night, there was a feeling that, from the Republicans, that they were going to win. And so what they seized oin, it seems like in the last day, is they've changed Gore-Lieberman to Sore-Loserman. That's kind of like their chant now. They had an airplane flying over yesterday with a banner that said Sore-Loserman on it, and they've got bumper stickers now, Sore-Loserman. And that seems to be their mantra now. And that's kind of picking up steam.

The Democrats for some reason, I don't know. They were pretty thick early in the week, and they've kind of thinned out and now let the Republican protest. But I have to say, though, the Republicans as protesters don't really have it done as well as the Democrats. The Democrats seem to be more spirited.

HARRIS: I think that goes with the fortunes of this case, you know, they've been swinging left and right.

CERABINO: Right, you got it.

HARRIS: Frank Cerabino, thanks much for your time. I've got to keep an eye on your column. You're a pretty funny guy. Good luck to you. We'll see you later on, all right?

CERABINO: OK, thanks, Leon, all right.

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