rading accusations, lawsuits, and threats, Democrats and Republicans are preparing for a drawn-out fight for the presidency that appears headed well beyond the court-imposed Sunday deadline for a resolution.
Yesterday's decision by the US Supreme Court to hear an appeal by the campaign of George W. Bush could add a week or more to the already-delayed election.
That complication is on top of a series of events this week that already stood to drag out the process. Vice President Al Gore announced Thursday that he might contest tomorrow's election certification, and the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature has been hinting that it might send its own representatives, presumably Bush electors, to the Electoral College next month.
Even that tumultuous series of events might not bring an end to it: Disgruntled Gore supporters could send their own electors as well, forcing Congress to deal with the mess, noted L. Kinvin Wroth, dean of Vermont Law School.
''We honestly have no idea'' when this election will be finished, said a high-ranking Gore aide.
Now that the courts have become so heavily involved, specialists say, there is almost no turning back for either candidate. Each is convinced he has won, and neither legal team appears ready to give in until appeals are exhausted.
The time for a graceful exit by either man has probably long passed, observers say, since both are locked in a do-or-die fight for their political futures and personal pride.
''We're out of the realm of the purely political and into the realm of lawyers,'' said Mark Miller, a professor of government at Clark University and author of ''The High Priests of American Politics: The Role of Lawyers in American Political Institutions.''
''Political compromise only works when you have something to compromise over,'' Miller said. ''This situation is all or nothing. This is a win-lose game, although both sides may be turning it into a lose-lose game,'' Miller said, because of the relentless drive to prevail displayed by both campaigns.
Accusations of misdeeds were flying this week, even as each side pursued its case in the state and federal courts.
The Republicans have accused the Democrats of trying to exclude absentee ballots sent by military personnel overseas, votes both parties assume would be largely Republican.
The Democrats, meanwhile, have accused the GOP of importing freelance demonstrators from other states to intimidate canvassers in Miami-Dade County into stopping its recount. Gore's running mate, Joseph I. Lieberman, yesterday denounced the alleged harassment.
Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, said the GOP is employing ''fascist tactics.'' Nadler is among a group of lawmakers from both parties who have traveled to Florida to back their candidates.
The Republicans ''are following a scorched-earth policy, trashing every institution that gets in their way,'' Nadler said in an interview.
The Bush camp insists that Gore's Democratic colleagues are abandoning him, sending signals that Gore should give up the fight for the dignity of the party. But Michael Meehan, a senior aide to Senate minority leader Thomas Daschle, Democrat of South Dakota, said Gore's party was faithful.
''I think people are saying, stick with him until they're done counting,'' Meehan said. ''There's no sense of trauma here.''
Gore's threat to contest the election if the Miami-Dade ballots are not recounted and included in the totals set off the Republicans.
''Both sides are fighting, but there is a standard of reasonableness and fairness Americans are applying to the process,'' said Bush spokesman Tucker Eskew. ''Gore is coming up on the short end of that calculation.''
The vice president's campaign ''has fought every decision and filed lawsuits with respect to everything that's gone on in Florida, so they intend to continue this ... to the bitter end,'' said Bush lawyer Theodore Olson yesterday on ABC's ''Good Morning America.''
''It's unfortunate, but that's their strategy,'' Olson said. ''Every decision that goes against them, every time the vote comes up and they're not satisfied with it, they continue to protest.''
Both sides have ''plausible'' legal arguments, Miller and other independent lawyers said, raising legitimate questions about the rights of voters to be heard clearly and the rights of the state to run its election as it sees fit.
Now that the argument is being waged largely in the courts, considerations of public opinion have been overshadowed, analysts said. But in both arenas, the candidates must be cognizant of the damage they can inflict on themselves, warned John Siegal of the New York City law firm Proskauer Rose.
''Both sides have tiptoed toward the line of overzealousness,'' but ''I don't think either side has crossed it yet,'' said Siegal, who has worked for Democrats Charles E. Schumer, now a senator from New York, and former New York City mayor David N. Dinkins.
''If you overreach, you risk losing credibility. You lose it with the judge, and you lose it with the public,'' Siegal said.
Both sides profess a desire to have the matter resolved as quickly as possible, yet there appears no conclusive end in sight. Analysts envision a slew of possible scenarios in which a challenge from one party sets off a chain of reactions and counterreactions.
For example, if Miami-Dade County refuses to resume its recount, Gore may follow through on his threat to contest the election. That could send the case right back to the Florida Supreme Court, the same court, Miller noted, that Bush adviser and former Secretary of State James A. Baker III suggested was partisan Democrat.
If the US Supreme Court rules that the Florida court was out of line in invalidating Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris's deadline for counting to be finished, it may nullify all the recounts, Siegal said. The impact would depend on how the high court's ruling is worded, and if it gives any directions, he said.
The other possible resolution is that one candidate or the other finally decides to bow out to avoid further distress to himself or to the country - a scenario that seems less likely as the legal war becomes increasingly bitter, observers say.
Gone are the days when political bosses would tell their candidates what to do, noted James Pinkerton, a former Republican White House official.
''The parties don't have that much power,'' Pinkerton said. ''It's decided by the ego-preneurs, who are looking after their own good,'' he said.
