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Sunday Morning News

Election 2000: Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and Representative Asa Hutchinson Discuss Presidential Gridlock

Aired December 10, 2000 - 7:44 a.m. ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now, so far, Congress has kept it's legislative hands off the disputed Florida presidential election, but it hasn't kept members of Congress from expressing their opinions, of course. Two of them, Representative Asa Hutchinson, a Republican from Arkansas, and Democrat, Eleanor Holmes Norton, a delegate who represents the District of Columbia, joining us this morning. Thanks, both of you, for being with us.

Ms. Holmes Norton, I'd like to begin with you. Just your general reaction to the Supreme Court ruling yesterday. A lot of people in Congress leveling some criticism at the Court, saying it has become politicized. Would you be in that camp?

DEL. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON (D), DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Well, I'd have to be in that camp because I've read very closely the decision of the Florida Supreme Court where each and every provision of that decision is an interpretation of Florida law. And I certainly don't see any federal question here. There is no equal protection question because the Florida law has laid down -- the Florida Court has laid down the standard in Florida law for counting votes. And it's the clear intent of the voters. So when there are ballots where the clear intent is not present, those ballots are going to be discarded.

O'BRIEN: All right. That common sense rule comes into play once again, which is of course, a bit subjective. Mr. Hutchinson, what are your thoughts on that Supreme Court ruling -- unusual in the sense, as well, that the court -- and I call it a ruling, it really is a stay order -- tipped it's hand on how it might be thinking about this hearing coming up tomorrow?

REP. ASA HUTCHINSON (R), ARKANSAS: Well, it did indicate that it would be a substantial likelihood that the Bush team would prevail on the merits in order to give that stay. But I think the Supreme Court's entry is appropriate under federal law because there is a federal constitutional issue at stake.

But secondly, I think that if this close election and the fairness of this election is going to be determined by a court, the American public would expect it to be the United States Supreme Court and not a closely divided Florida Court. I think it is much less likely that this would ever wind up in Congress because they have accepted this case. And if it wound up in Congress, that would certainly be a fireworks display that would exceed anything that ever happened on the 4th of July. So I think it would give us the credibility that this election needs.

O'BRIEN: Having said that though, there is quite a bit of speculation this morning that ultimately this will end in up in Congress one way or another. Ms. Holmes Norton, do you agree that the Supreme Court has lessened the chance of that happening?

HOLMES NORTON: Perhaps, though although anybody who runs the risk of predicting, after what we've gone through, is truly foolish. I do think this, that it would be a real tragedy if a presidential election gets decided by a 5-4 decision of the Supreme Court because in this case, it would have been decided by a court stopping a count in progress. I mean, that's almost Soviet-like. That is as far from what we do in this country as anything I've ever heard of. And I can't believe that the court, even though there is some probability, that's the way you get a hold of a case in the first place.

I hope everyone will understand that the court is not simply a political vehicle. And that when they get briefs and considers the matter, there is some likelihood that it will look to see whether or not it wants to go down in history as the court who decided a presidential election 5-4 by stopping a count of legal votes.

O'BRIEN: Of course, Mr. Hutchinson, you might agree that in the court's opinion it's very clear it's better not to count than to count in an illegal manner. Would you go along with that? And, also, just give me a sense of how hard and fast this December 12th deadline really is as Congress views it.

HUTCHINSON: Well, I think it's a safe harbor for the electors that will come out of Florida. So it has a presumption of validity. So it's a very important date. For the Chief Justice Wells, of the Florida Supreme Court, talked about the imponderable, practical difficulties of any type of what they call a recount or putting these through a manual review and trying to determine the voters' intent.

The United States Supreme Court is simply saying, "We have to have some rules to follow and we're going to check those rules to make sure they're fair." The American people will accept what they say. Somebody has to determine this close election. If you reject the legislature, if you reject the executive branch, the courts have to step in and we should give it the respect that it is due.

O'BRIEN: Ms. Holmes-Norton.

HOLMES NORTON: They deserve...

O'BRIEN: Go ahead.

HOLMES NORTON: They deserve that respect. But under Florida law, which is the only law relevant for counting votes in the state of Florida, the courts have said that there is a way to count these votes and have given a standard that comes from Florida law. To reach over that and decide this case on a basis of federal law when the Florida courts have been at pains to make sure that there is no equal perception question by requiring that all of the under votes be counted, not just those in the states that Gore wanted, but all of the under votes be counted. To do that is to have the Supreme Court become the ultimate activist court in this country.

O'BRIEN: All right. Eleanor Homes-Norton, Representative of the District of Columbia, and Asa Hutchinson, Republican of Arkansas, thank you both very much for being with us on CNN Sunday Morning.

HUTCHINSON: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

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