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Morning News

Election 2000: 'Sun Sentinel''s Linda Kleindienst Discusses Possible Special Session of Florida Legislature to Decide Electors

Aired November 29, 2000 - 9:21 a.m. ET

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

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, welcome back to a Wednesday morning. Once again, we're live in Tallahassee.

Want to continue our discussion now with Linda Kleindienst, a writer with the "Sun-Sentinel" out of Fort Lauderdale, but she's positioned right here in Tallahassee.

Good morning to you.

LINDA KLEINDIENST, "FORT LAUDERDALE SUN-SENTINEL": Good morning.

HEMMER: Nice to see you again.

Let's frame it up for our viewers and cut through all the stuff that we're talking about here. What are you watching today, specifically, on the 29th of November.

KLEINDIENST: Well, today, we're pretty much watching the legislature to see what the special select committee does. We believe that, by the end of the day, they could move toward recommending a special session, perhaps next week.

HEMMER: Do you get the sense, though, as we wait for that potential special session, that we're in a bit of a holding pattern right now, waiting on this waiting on that?

KLEINDIENST: I think we're in a lull. We're waiting for the attorneys to file briefs in the Supreme Court, perhaps an appeal from the Gore campaign on a ruling yesterday in circuit court, where they decided not to start counting those questionable ballots right away.

HEMMER: Back to the legislature: Give us a better sense of the relationship between lawmakers here in Florida and the state Supreme Court. I understand it's been somewhat acrimonious many times.

KLEINDIENST: It's been very acrimonious. The Supreme Court has overturned several things that the legislature has done, including their death penalty reforms last year. There's a basic mistrust of the high court, but I think, in general, the legislature tends to mistrust the courts across the state.

HEMMER: Given that, though, is that motivation for going into this special session, for lawmakers to say to the judiciary: Hey, we have a role in this matter, too?

KLEINDIENST: I think so. I think this is a very, very Republican legislature. They're very supportive of Governor Bush, they believe that Governor Bush won the state, and they want to make sure that there's a slate of Bush electors ready on December 12th.

HEMMER: And given that, knowing there's a majority of Republicans in both the House and the Senate, is this considered a slam dunk?

KLEINDIENST: Absolutely. Florida has a majority of registered Democrats. The state may have been split evenly, or close to even, on the presidential campaign, but the Republicans hold an overwhelming majority in both the House and the Senate.

HEMMER: But certainly, there are Democrats in that part of the state body here. How much resistance have they put up just yet?

KLEINDIENST: Well, they've put up some. They've been talking about it. There was some talk among House Democrats, maybe they shouldn't even show up for this special session, but then they decided against that, and said: No, we better, at least, be there because if we're not there, we don't know what might happen.

HEMMER: Ultimately, here, despite what happens in the U.S. Supreme court, despite what may happen in the Florida state Supreme Court or circuit court, is this the final step in this process for getting Bush to the White House? Is that how Republicans view this in the statehouse here in Tallahassee?

KLEINDIENST: Oh, I think so, absolutely. They view themselves as the last stand here, and they're going to make sure that there's a slate for George W. Bush ready.

HEMMER: All right, Linda Kleindienst, "Sun-Sentinel," thanks for stopping by, again.

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