DEMOCRATIC LOYALIST involved in the Broward County recount insists the massive post-Election Day effort on behalf of Vice President Al Gore is ''on the side of the angels - the frail elderly, first-time voters, and minorities.'' I wish I could believe that.
I voted for Gore on Nov. 7. But when the Florida Supreme Court ruled unanimously this week that results of manual ballot recounts in three heavily Democratic Florida counties must be included in the state's final tally, it was deflating, not uplifting. This is why:
For Gore and Republican George W. Bush, this monumental ballot fight was always about winning an election. But for the rest of us, at least in the beginning, it also seemed to be about something bigger than the immediate fate of two rather ordinary politicians.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court of Florida, of course, speaks to the most majestic of motives: ''The laws are intended to facilitate and safeguard the right of each voter to express his or her will in the context of our representative democracy,'' the justices proclaim. But somehow the sentiment of this Democratic-dominated panel of jurists rings hollow, at least for me.
The ''will of the people is the paramount consideration,'' they write in their decision. But how can that will be truly determined if a different and very subjective standard of vote-counting is used in only three of Florida's 67 counties?
And what does the will of the people have to do with the court's setting of a totally arbitrary deadline to certify their ballots? (The day after the Supreme Court's ruling, Miami-Dade voted against a recount, with county canvassing board members saying they could not meet the court's deadline.)
But the Supreme Court's decision to essentially rewrite Florida law is only part of the unease I feel over this increasingly ugly and still-unfolding power struggle.
Over the past two weeks, we watched Republicans and Democrats yap incessantly at each other in Florida and across the country. The Republicans looked angry, bitter, mean-spirited, and defiant. The Democrats looked self-righteous, arrogant, calculating, and even worse: vengeful. For the Democrats, this isn't just about Al Gore and George W. Bush. It seems to have little to do with Social Security, health care, or education, the linchpin issues of a pre-Election Day campaign that seems quaint when compared to the post-Election Day hardball.
In fact, the Florida recount could be more about the past than it is about the present or the future. It is about Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky, and impeachment. It is about George Bush, Willie Horton, and Michael Dukakis. It is about Ronald Reagan, Walter Mondale, and Geraldine Ferraro.
The Democrats fighting Gore's fight in Florida are avenging political humiliations suffered over the past 16 years, as much as they are trying to stave off political elimination in the year 2000. I suspect that many were far more emotionally invested in losing Democratic candidates in the past than they are with Gore.
How can I prove this? I can't. I just sense it, particularly when I see Gore's face lurch onto my television screen. He seems such a hollow man, focused on one thing, winning the prize he spent his entire adult life striving to achieve. I commend his perseverance, but take no particular inspiration from his effort and cannot imagine many in his political army do, either.
Maybe some of the youngest feel deep loyalty; but for many others, a Gore victory is about winning an election this year and more business over the next four.
If that assessment is not only harsh but wrong and there are truly passionate Gore believers running around Florida, my apologies. This is what I do know: Gore got my vote because of what I want him to stand for, not because I am convinced he does stand for it. And Bush couldn't represent even that much.
As Democrats and Republicans fight this out now to the death, I wish the vice president would spare us the rhetoric about democracy and the will of the people. I wish he would spare us the made-for-TV magnanimous gestures, making offers he knows Bush won't accept.
Gore on the side of the angels? If he is, it is by coincidence. In the meantime, the devil's in the details.
Joan Vennochi's e-mail address is vennochi@globe.com.
