ASHINGTON - Just hours after leaving the US Supreme Court's historic arguments yesterday, Senator Edward M. Kennedy said Vice President Al Gore should stick it out.
''He's entitled to have the recount,'' said Kennedy, one of the Senate's most senior Democrats, in his first public comments on the matter. ''That's a time-honored tradition in this country.''
While sitting in the courtroom in front of Gore's three daughters, Kennedy was most impressed by ''the desire of all the justices to come up with a correct resolution to this,'' he said after leaving the court.
Kennedy echoed what Gore and his supporters have been saying. ''The fact remains there are a number of ballots that have not been counted in spite of the fact many of the Bush people keep repeating it,'' he said when asked if he thought Gore was the winner.
''It's reasonable to assume that'' the Florida Supreme Court ''would give additional time for the hand-counting that the Gore campaign desires,'' Kennedy said. ''It is important that people have a sense that there was a fair election.''
Kennedy, who as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee has participated in the confirmation of all of the current members of the Supreme Court, attended the hearing with his wife, Victoria. He sat near his longtime colleague Senator Orrin Hatch, a conservative Utah Republican who chairs the Judiciary Committee.
Kennedy declined to speculate on the outcome but said he thought a decision would be issued on Monday.
