10kocybv's Journal

We went to Belfast, where I met with the Northern...
We went to Belfast, where I met with the Northern Irish leaders, including David Trimble, Seamus Mallon, John Hume, and Gerry AdamsThen we went with Tony and Cherie Blair, Bertie Ahern, and George Mitchell to a large meeting of both Catholics and Protestants in the Odyssey ArenaIt was still somewhat unusual for them to gather together in BelfastSome sharp disputes remained involving the new police force and the schedule and method of putting arms beyond useI asked them to keep working on the problems and remember that the enemies of peace didnt need their approval: All they need is your apathyI reminded the audience that the Good Friday accord had given heart to peacemakers the world over, and cited the just announced agreement ending the bloody conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia that the United States had helped brokerI closed by saying how much I had loved working with them for peace, but the issue is not how I feel; its how your kids are going to live

After the event, my family flew to England to stay with the Blairs at Chequers and listen to Al Gore give his concession speechThe night before, at 10 p the Supreme Court had ruled, 72, that the Florida recount was unconstitutional because there were no uniform standards for defining the clear intent of the voter for purposes of a recount, and therefore different vote counters might count or interpret the same ballots differentlyTherefore, the Court replica chanel earrings said, allowing any of the disputed votes to be counted, no matter how clear the voters intent, would deny equal protection of the law to those whose ballots werent countedI disagreed strongly with the decision, but I was heartened that Justices Souter and Breyer wanted to send the case back to the Florida Supreme Court to set a standard and proceed with the recount in a hurryThe electoral college was meeting soonThe other five justices in the majority disagreedBy 54, the same five justices who had stopped the vote count three days earlier now said it had to give the election to Bush because under Florida law the recount had to be finished by midnight on that day anyway

It was an appalling decisionA narrow conservative majority that had made a virtual fetish of states rights had now stripped Florida of a clear state function: the right to recount votes the way it always hadThe five justices who didnt want the votes counted by any standard claimed to advance equal protection by depriving thousands of people of their constitutional right to have their votes counted even if their intent was crystal clearThey said Bush should be awarded the election because the votes couldnt be counted in the next two hours, when, after already killing three days of recounting, they had delayed issuing the opinion until 10 p to make absolutely sure the recount could not be completed on timeThe five-vote majority didnt make any dior saddle bags bones about what it was up to: the opinion clearly stated that the ruling could not be used as precedent in future election law cases; its reasoning was limited to the present circumstances, for the problem of equal protection in election processes generally presents many complexitiesIf Gore had been ahead in the vote count and Bush behind, theres not a doubt in my mind that the same Supreme Court would have voted 90 to count the votesAnd I would have supported the decisionGore will go down in history as one of the worst decisions the Supreme Court ever made, along with the Dred Scott case, which said that a slave who escaped to freedom was still a piece of property to be returned to its owner; Plessy vFerguson, upholding the legality of racial segregation; the cases in the twenties and thirties invalidating legislative protections for workers, like minimum wage and maximum workweek laws, as violations of the property rights of employers; and the Korematsu case, in which the Supreme Court approved the blanket internment of Japanese-Americans in camps after Pearl HarborWe had lived through and rejected the premises of all those previous reactionary decisionsI knew America would also get beyond this dark day when five Republican justices stripped thousands of their fellow Americans of their votes, just because they could

Al Gore gave a marvelous concession speechIt was genuine, gracious, and patrioticWhen I tiffany jewellery called to congratulate him, he told me that a friend who was a professional comedian had joked to him that he had gotten the best of both worlds: he had won the popular vote and didnt have to do the job

The next morning, after Tony Blair and I talked a bit, I walked outside, complimented Al, and pledged to work with President-elect BushThen Tony and Cherie accompanied Hillary, Chelsea, and me to the University of Warwick, where I gave another of my farewell speeches, this one on the approach to globalization our Third Way group had embraced: trade plus a global contract for economic empowerment, education, health care, and democratic governanceThe speech also gave me a chance to publicly thank Tony Blair for his friendship and our partnershipI had treasured our times together and would miss them

Before we left England, we went to Buckingham Palace, accepting Queen Elizabeths kind invitation to teaWe had a pleasant visit, discussing the election and world affairsThen Her Majesty took the unusual step of accompanying us down to the ground floor of the palace and walking us out to our car to say good-byeShe, too, had been gracious and kind to me over the past eight years

On December 15, I reached an omnibus budget agreement with Congress, the last major legislative victory of my eight yearsThe education budget was especially goodFinally, I secured more than $1 billion to repair schools; the largest fendi spy bag replica increase ever in Head Start; enough money to put 1 million students in after-school programs; a 25 percent increase in the fund to hire 100,000 teachers; and more funding for Pell Grants, for our Gear Up mentoring program, and for our efforts to turn around failing schoolsThe bill also included the New Markets initiative, a large increase in biomedical research, health-care coverage for welfare recipients and disabled people moving into the workforce, and the Millennium Debt Relief initiative

John Podesta, Steve Ricchetti, my legislative aide Larry Stein, and our whole team had done a great jobMy last year, when I was supposed to be a lame duck, had resulted in the passage of a surprising number of the State of the Union recommendationsBesides those mentioned above, Congress had passed the Africa-Caribbean trade bill, the China trade bill, the Lands Legacy initiative, and a large increase in child-care assistance to working families

I was still deeply disappointed in the election outcome and concerned about the Middle East, but after the visit to Ireland and England and the budget victories, I was finally getting into the Christmas spirit

On the eighteenth, Jacques Chirac and Romano Prodi came to the White House for my last meeting with European Union leadersBy then we were old friends, and I was glad to receive them one last timeJacques thanked me for supporting the growth of the EU and transatlantic chanel white purses relati