Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Sparring over election continues ■ Bush preparing for transition; Gore contesting final tally by David Espo Associated Press George W. Bush’s point man in Flori da argued Tuesday it was “wrong, sim ply wrong” for Ai Gore to claim that thousands of votes have never been count ed in the state’s bitterly contested pres idential election. Democratic running mate Joseph Lieberman kept saying sof anyway. “There are more than 10,000 votes in South Florida that have never been counted, ” Lieberman said in an ear ly morning interview on CBS, follow ing up on Gore’s nationally televised ap peal for patience while he pursues his unprecedented legal challenge to Bush’s certified victory in Florida. The vice presidential hopefiil made the same claim on the other television networks, with only slight variations in phrasing. Former Secretary of State James A. Baker in, speaking for Bush, sharply dis puted Gore’s claim at a news conference in Tallahassee. “It is wrong, simply wrong, and I would submit not fair to say, as our op ponents do over and over, that these votes have never been counted,” he said. The ballots contain no vote for presi dent, he said, but even so, “they’ve been counted just like all of the other non votes, not only in other counties in Flori da, but across the United States of Amer ica have been counted. They’ve been counted, and they’ve been recounted by machines.” Lieberman said “our hope” is for the election to be settled by Dec. 12, the date for final selection of Florida’s 25 electors. The candidate who controls them will become the next president, since neither Bush nor Gore can com mand a majority of the Electoral College without Florida in his column. That mathematical imperative has spawned an election controversy unlike any other but not yet an acknowledged winner in the race for the White House. Bush was in Texas on Tuesday, meet ing with his aides, after serving notice on Monday he wanted the keys to the government’s transition office — a re quest the Clinton administration rebuffed. Andy Card, Bush’s pick to serve as his chief of staff, said the Texas gover nor might start meeting with prospec tive Cabinet members “later this week.” He would not discuss names or a timetable. Aides said it was possible Bush would meet with some candidates at his ranch. Gore was in Washington on the morn ing after his televised appeal to the na tion in which he cast his court challenge as an obligation to assure that the true winner is known, and said, “ignoring votes means ignoring democracy itself. ” Public opinion polls pointed to an uphill climb for the vice president. A CNN-USA Today-Gallup survey, released just before Gore spoke, showed 56 percent of those polled believe the vice president should concede, and 38 percent believed he should not. A Wash ington Post poll yielded approximately the same result. Congressional Democratic leaders have emphatically thrown their support behind Gore’s appeal for patience while his court challenge plays out. One South ern Democrat, Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Ala., issued a statement during the day saying, “The time has come for this to come to a close.” “It is my hope that both of these men will put the good of the country first,” he added in a statement that mentioned neither Bush nor Gore by name. Whatever the timetable Lieber man had in mind, the legal wheels were turning. Gore’s attorneys filed a motion irf late morning to speed up the process of hearing their challenge to the vote count in three Florida counties, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Nassau. Gore’s chal I The time has come for this to come to a close. It is my hope that both of these men will put the good of the country first.’ Rep. Bud Cramer D-Ala. lenge is before Circuit Judge N. Sanders Sauls, a jurist known for swift action. He told lawyers Monday he understood theii difficulty in trying to get the case re solved before the Dec. 12 deadline foi selecting Florida’s 25 electors. A mid-afternoon hearing was set in yet another case, a lawsuit in Seminole County on a lawsuit challenging thou sands of ballots there. And the Bush team labored ovei its written appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has set arguments for Fri day in the Texas governor’s lawsuit chal lenging the validity of the manual re counts that the Gore campaign triggered last week. At the heart of the legal contest and the public sparring between Baker and Lieberman was a dispute over thousands of ballots on which voting machines failed to read a vote for president. The Gore campaign argues that an unknown num ber of them contained an imperfectly cast vote — meaning the voter failed to punch a hole out of the cardboard bal lot fully. The Bush team says not all vot ers intended to vote for president in Flori da, as elsewhere, and the votes have, in fact, been counted. Republican running mate Dick Ch eney was also on the talk show circuit, making the case that Bush needed all the time available for his transition, espe cially given the time spent on recount ing=votes in Florida. “It’s time to wrap this up now that we’ve had the election, we’ve had the count, we’ve had the recounLand now we’ve had the certification of George W. Bush as the winner,” Cheney said on NBC’s “Today” show. He said the Bush team is “rapidly running out of time to put together that new administration.” Another interested party, the Re publican-controlled Florida Legislature, was taking a step toward a special ses sion that could result in appointment of its own slate of electors. A special joint committee met for the first time to dis cuss election issues. supreme Court rules 6-3 against random roadblocks b y Anne Gear an Associated Press WASHINGTON—In a significant rul ing on the use of police power, the Supreme Court struck, down random road blocks intended for drug searches, say ing they are an unreasonable invasion of privacy under the Constitution. Law enforcement in and of itself is not a good enough reason to stop inno cent motorists, the majority concluded Tuesday in the first major ruling of the new term. “Because the checkpoint program’s primary purpose is indistinguishable from the general interest in crime control, the checkpoints contravened the Fourth Amendment,” which protects against un reasonable searches and seizures, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote. The court’s three most conservative justices dissented, saying the road blocks Indianapolis set up in high-crime neighborhoods served valuable public safety and crime-fighting goals. Chief Jus tice William Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dis sented. nitons 10 eruorce me taw on puo lic higjiways used by millions of motorists are obviously necessary to our soci ety,” Rehnquist wrote. “The court’s opin ion today casts a shadow over what has been assumed... to be a perfectly law ful activity.” Thomas joined the entire nine-page dissent. Scalia agreed with Rehnquist on ly in part. Justice Anthony Kennedy, like O’ Connor a sometime “swing vote” be tween the court’s ideological poles, sided with her in the majority. The American Civil Liberties Union had sued on behalf of two detained mo torists, and the 7 th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago eventually found the practice was probably unconstitutional. “Today’s decision sends a clear mes sage that even a conservative court is not willing to countenance the serious ero sion of our basic constitutional rights,” said Steven Shapiro, ACLU’s legal di rector. O’Connor stressed that the high court ruling doesn’t affect other police road blocks such as border checks and drunk en-driving checkpoints, which have al ready been found constitutional. The reasoning behind those kinds of roadblocks — chiefly that the bene fit to the public outweighs the inconve nience — cannot be applied broadly, O’ Connor wrote. “If this case were to rest on such a high level of generality, there would be little check on the authorities’ ability to construct roadblocks for almost any con ceivable law enforcement purpose,” the opinion said. During oral arguments in October, several justices seemed troubled by the notion that by unwittingly driving into the checkpoint, a motorist is open to a criminal investigation that presumably would not have happened otherwise. Others questioned whether the use of drug-sniffing dogs was heavy-hand ed. The dogs were led around the car’s exterior at every stop. The case is one of several the court has taken recently that examine the lim its of police powers to hunt for drugs. —The court heard arguments in the case of a man detained by police out side his home for about two hours while officers got a search warrant for drugs. In that case, justices seemed to in dicate by their questions that they saw little wrong with the police approach. —The justices will also consider a case involving a man arrested for grow ing marijuana after police outside the home monitored heat generated by grow lamps in his garage. —In 1999, the court ruled that im migration officials violated bus passen gers’ privacy rights by squeezing the lug gage in overhead racks in a search for drugs. In the IndianaDolis case, lawyers for the city said catching drug criminals was the primary aim of the roadblocks set up in the summer of 1998. The city conceded the roadblocks detained far more innocent motorists than criminals, but contended the checks were a quick and efficient way to hunt for illegal drugs and that the severity of the drug problem in some areas justified the searches. While agreeing that society would be safer without illegal drugs, O’Connor said “the gravity of the threat alone” can’t determine whether the program was con stitutional. Similarly, the majority rejected the idea that the checkpoints could also help catch drunks and drivers without valid li censes or registrations. Under that justification, O’Connor wrote, “authorities would be able to es tablish checkpoints for virtually any pur pose so long as they also included a li cense or sobriety check.” The city conducted six roadblocks over four montlis in 1998 before the prac tice was challenged in federal court. Police stopped 1,161 cars and trucks at random and made 104 arrests, 55 of them on drug chaiges. Several other cities have used simi lar checkpoints, but others held off to see how the Supreme Court would rule on Indianapolis. Netherlands passes bill legalizing euthanasia by Anthony Deutsch Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands — The Dutch parliament approved a bill Tuesday to allow euthanasia and physi cian-assisted suicide, which would make Holland the first country to for mally legalize the practice. The bill passed by a vote of 104 40. It still needs the approval pf the Senate and is expected to enter into force next year. Advocates say the law puts the Dutch in tlie vanguard of patient rights, while opponents say it will replace caring with killing. “Doctors should not be treated as criminals. This will create securi ty for doctors and patients alike.” said Health Minister Els Borst, who draft ed the bill. “Something as serious as ending oik’s life deserves openness,” she told The Associated Press after the vote. The legislation mandates strict criteria that require doctor and pa tient have a long-term relationship, making it unavailable to foreigners who want to travel to the Netherlands to end their lives, a government spokesman said. “There is no possibility for for eigners to come here for euthanasia,” said Wijnand Stevens of the Justice Ministry. The bill adopts guidelines that par liament approved in 1993, establish ing the Netherlands’ semiofficial tol erance of euthanasia. Under that policy it was understood that doctors who followed the guidelines would not be prosecuted, though euthanasia re mained a crime punishable by up to 12 years in prison. Under the guidelines, a patient must be undergoing irremediable and unbearable suffering, be aware of all other medical options and have sought a second professional opinion. The re quest must be made voluntarily, persistently and independently while the patient is of sound mind. Doctors are not supposed to suggest it as an option. The new law also allows patients to leave a written request for eu thanasia, giving doctors the right to use their own discretion when patients become too physically or mentally ill to decide for themselves. No other country has attempted to legalize euthanasia, health officials and legal experts said, though it is tol erated in Switzerland, Colombia and Belgium. Australia’s Northern Territory approved euthanasia in Sep tember 1996, but the federal Parlia ment revoked the law in March 1997. In Oregon, voters approved doc tor-assisted suicide for the terminal ly ill in 1994. Since the law took ef fect in 1997,43 people have died in Oregon in assisted suicides. The House of Representatives passed a bill in Oc tober that would restrict the practice, but President Clinton has threatened to veto the bill. Euthanasia remains illegal in the United States. In doctor-assisted sui cides, the patient administers a lethal dose to him- or herself. Under the new Dutch law, a doctor can also do so directly. All 100 seats in the public gallery were full for Tuesday’s vote—con ducted by roll call on request of a small Christian party opposed to the measure. The date of the Senate vote has not yet been set. “It’s a bad thing,” said Jan Veid huizen, a spectator in the gallery who said he supports the Christian De mocratic Alliance party. . Rita Marker, executive director of the International Anti-Euthanasia Task Force, said the law will send a dangerous signal “telling people that if it’s legal, it’s right.” “It will be like giving the household seal of approval. What is currently a crime will be transformed into medical treatment,” Marker told The Associated Press. The Vatican assailed the bill’s ap proval, saying being the first nation to allow euthanasia and physician-as sisted suicide is “a sad record for Hol land.” Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Vails said the law “violates human dignity.” Doctors honor about one-third of assisted suicide requests in tire Nether lands each year, according to gov ernment estimates. In 1999, 2,216 cases were recorded, but there also ‘were believed to be a larger number of unregistered cases. Drop in consumer confidence shows weakening economy by Amy Baldwin Associated Press NEW YORK — Consumer confi dence fell in November to its lowest level in more than a year, yet another sign the economy is slowing. The New York-based Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index now stands at 133.5, a modest drop from the revised 135.8 reported in October and a significant decline from the record high of 144.7 last reg istered in May. The Conference Board index is closely watched because consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of the nation’s economic activity. The index compares results to its base year, 1985, when it stood at 100. “The nine-point drop in consumer confidence over the last two months underscores an anxiety about future economic conditions,” says Lynn Fran co, director of the Conference Board’s Consumer Research Center. “The dip in expectations may reflect concern about the still unresolved presidential election.” Consumer confidence has fallen sharply since the index recorded 142.5 in September; the last time it was this low was October 1999, when it stood at 130.5. Consumers’ outlook for the future also registered a much sharper drop at 103.4, down from 108.4. “Consumers are still feeling con fident about their personal financial sit uations. They are concerned about six months down the road and a lot of that reflects the political uncertainty,” said David Orr, chief economist at First Union Capital Markets Group in Char lotte, N.C. Orr also pointed to an increase in consumers’ confidence in the present, from 178.7 from 176.8 in October, a potentially good sign for the holiday season. “There is no indication that consumers would stop their holiday spending from this number,” he added. The report also showed consumers believe jobs are slightly harder to get and that there aren’t as many. And few er consumers foresee business condi tions or employment improving in the next six months. Despite that pessimism, more con sumers— 27.6 percent, up from 24.6 percent in October—think their incomes will rise in that time period. Only 5.9 percent of them believe their paychecks will shrink. News Briefs ■ Aristide pledges democratic rule after Haitian election , PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) Jean-Bertrand Aristide moved to dispel fears he will rule Haiti as a dictator after an election that he seems certain to have won. Breaking a six-year silence on polit ical issues a day after the presidential vote, Aristide said the opposition would be welcome in his government and de nied charges he would squelch Haiti’s nascent democracy. “There will be a place for every one in my government,” Aristide said Monday at his first news conference since 1994. “To have a peaceful Haiti, the op position is indispensable.... It is part of our democratic fate. ” The fiery former priest, who became Haiti’s first freely elected president in 1990, did not declare victory in Sunday’s vote, but he spoke as if he were presi dent. Preliminary results were expected Tuesday. ■ Partial results show leftists winning in Romanian elections BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - Leftists will likely return to power in Romania after weekend elections, with an ex-communist leading in the race for the presidency and his party gaining the most support in parliament, partial re sults showed Monday. With nearly 92 percent of votes counted, ex-communist Ion Iliescu, who was president from 1990-96, was lead ing with 36.8 percent of the vote, and extreme nationalist Comeliu Vadim Tu dor was second with 28.3 percent, the central election bureau said. ■ U.N. warns nations against complacency toward AIDS epidemic GENEVA (AP) — The world’s richest countries are growing alarmingly com placent about the global AIDS epidem ic as infections reach new levels, the United Nations said in a report Tuesday that noted the number of cases in Russia alone will more than double this year. The annual AIDS Epidemic Update predicted 45,000 new cases this year in North America and 30,000 in Western Europe. Nearly 1.5 million people in the industrialized countries will be living with the AIDS virus by the end of the year. Intravenous drug users accounted for the alarming rise in infections this year in Eastern Europe and the former Sovi et Union, where the number of people living with the virus is expected to rise from 420,000 to 700,000. ■ Early elections sougni Dy opposition in Israeli parliament JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s hard line opposition rebuffed a final appeal Tuesday by Prime Minister Ehud Barak that it join a national emergency gov ernment and said it was determined to force early elections with a crucial vote in parliament. The vote, to be held late Tuesday af ter several hours of debate, was expect ed to be close. The opposition was con fident it could muster the 61 of 120 legislative votes required to get the bill passed in each of three readings. How ever, several lawmakers remained un decided. ■ Rosie O’Donnell raises money to aid abused children ATLANTA (AP) — For $ 100, you could win a chance to introduce Rosie O’ Donnell on her show. The talk maven agreed to donate an appearance on her daily syndicated “Rosie” show to help the Georgia Center for Children, which helps sexu ally abused children going through men tal counseling. The organization is selling 300 tickets for S100 each. The winner gets a two-night trip to New York and intro du ties for O’Donnell. The winner is to be chosen Wednesday at a benefit dinner in Atlanta.