HBO Film About 2000 Recount Draws Protests From Democrats

by Michael Truscello 5/14/2008 11:49:00 AM

"Wounds from the Florida recount, still healing for many Democrats, are being ripped open again for some prominent former advisers to Al Gore. They say that a coming HBO film dramatizing the ballot battle after the 2000 election unfairly blames them for the Democrats’ failure to secure the White House.

Warren Christopher, the former secretary of state who served as the public face of the Gore team in the early days of the recount effort, said this week that he believed the film, “Recount,” was “pure fiction” in its portrayal of him as a weak strategist unprepared to stand up to the aggressive tactics of James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state who was the chief Republican adviser....

The film, which has its premiere on May 25 on HBO, stars John Hurt as Mr. Christopher, Tom Wilkinson as Mr. Baker, Mitch Pileggi as Mr. Daley and Laura Dern as Katherine Harris, then the Florida secretary of state. Kevin Spacey plays Ron Klain, the Gore lawyer who led the on-the-ground recount effort and through whose eyes much of the action is seen."

This could be a useful form of advocacy for election integrity reforms.

Tags: recount

Comments

5/15/2008 8:19:52 AM

The fact that it draws protests From Democrats is a sign that they've probably done at least something right. It's a good cast too.

Has anybody here seen the script or the previews?

Steven Freeman

5/17/2008 4:51:59 AM

Paddy Shaffer wrote:

Stephen Colbert did a skit on "Recount" on his show this week. He had the actress on who plays Catherine Harris, sorry I don't remember her name. They showed a little clip of her as Harris, it was a hoot. This looks good. Get out your popcorn and head for your recliner. This looks like it could be very good.

Now when do we get the Ohio story? The criminal goofballs up here would be great for a movie too. Two of our favorites are Kim Spangler and Janet Brenneman of Delaware County. Kim does too-tight blouses and cleavage across the counter while petting people and simultaneously lying about ballots being public records that the public can see, whilst her partner Janet (think of the actress who played the witch
from the wizard of Oz when she was pre-witch, the riding the bike with Toto in her basket) snarls and scowls and says, "How dare you impugn our integrity".

These characters also told us that they know there vote count is correct when we requested to see certain ballots. The reason, "All the shop owners are gay". They each said it three times. This was in regards to a heavy number of people who according to the election results, would have had to vote both that gay marriage is OK and for George W. Bush. This would be thousand of voters. We asked at many of the shops, at the chamber of commerce, at the taxi business that had been driving people around for 100 years. It seemed they lied.

Oh yeah, the data we collected in Delaware, according to the analysis by Richard Hayes Phillips shows fraud in both the U.S. Presidential and Ohio Supreme Court races. I guess that integrity went right down the toilet ladies. These fine criminals are the ones who went to federal court to block the 2004 recount. They need lots of credit for all their fine deeds, and a room with no view making license plates for many years.

Many more great characters too, great stories, great citizen investigators,
sorry no prosecutions... the rule of law died in Ohio. Now the Republicans want to take the Prosecutor who oversaw all this, and consider running him for Ohio Attorney General.

Paddy Shaffer
Director, The Ohio Election Justice Campaign

Steven Freeman

5/17/2008 4:54:14 AM

Bev Harris wrote:

Oh yeah. Just saw that article where Daley feels he has been unfairly portrayed and that he wanted Gore to concede from Day 1. Daley was in my opinion a mole.

I believe it was more than just Daley wanting Gore to concede immediately. I believe he was helping to maneuver a loss, and that goes back to BEFORE the election. My reasons for believing this are long and boring, but I will tell you that in 2000, I saw something going back to Daley. It happened on Friday BEFORE the Nov. 2000 election, and I was so disturbed upon realizing that he appeared to be sabotaging Gore that I called about 10 media outlets.

I was naive then, very stupid. They laughed at me, said "what do you expect us to do about it?" Daley was not a friend to Gore. However, it doesn't look great for Gore's savviness that he relied on those two creeps.

I'd lay you bets that it was Daley who picked the places to ask for hand counts -- you know, the ones where Gore would have lost, though the full state hand count shows he would have won. What was taken off the table: the Accuvote optical scan locations. They did hand count Volusia after the minus 16,022 was found, don't know if they ever hand counted Brevard, where 4,000 votes were discovered to be incorrect.

By the way, one of the more curious video clips we got from New Hampshire, very muddy audio however, was a creepy AP reporter pulling Sec. State Bill Gardner aside moments after Gardner learned there would be a statewide Republican hand count (Gardner is CLEARLY not happy that the hand count will procede!). The reporter hands Gardner a phone number, say "call him" and then says "Call Daley." I sure have wondered about that. The Accuvote system used in NH in 2008 is the same one used in FL in 2000, and we already know that the Accuvote system was slipped a Mickey to produce a mis-call on the election by the networks in 2000.

Bev Harris
Founder - Black Box Voting

Steven Freeman

5/21/2008 6:15:49 PM

Here's the trailer for Recount:

www.huffingtonpost.com/.../...ecount_n_102745.html

Michael Truscello

5/26/2008 11:07:41 AM

Just saw the movie on HBO. It's extraordinarily accurate. I usually have a hard time watching movies or programs on subjects about which I am knowledgeable. But I saw no errors or inaccuracies in Recount and thought everything and everyone that was portrayed was consistent with my understanding of what happened and the cast of characters. There are of course things that can be expounded upon, and I’m thinking about doing a Q&A about Florida 2000. If anyone has questions please post them on the new blog about the movie.

Thanks, Steve

Steve Freeman