At the risk of being unhip - one of the deadlier sins among the sort of middle-class media sophisticates who often populate Slate's columns - I'm sort of wondering what exactly Katharine Harris did that was illegal, or unethical, or showed her any more 'over her head' than anyone on Team Gore - you know, the side that, well . . . lost. Well, lost the actual issue at hand, even though they 'won' Hollywood and the political press, those pushovers. The most I can determine from Hollywood and the painfully orthodox media is that she wore too much make-up and declared Bush the winner of the disputed vote count. (Denigration of a woman's personal appearance is countenanced among our Miss Manners set in political journalism when the lady in question - Linda Tripp, Paula Jones - is on the Wrong Side of History, i.e., does things that balk the political will of people from places like Malibu and Martha's Vineyard and Georgetown.)

'Recount' portrays Harris as being in over her head, but apparently she followed the letter of the law. Maybe, Troy Patterson, as I say, the joke is that Gore's team was in over its head, including heroic Ron Klain and the supposedly shrewd David Boies, who seems to lose all his biggest cases, such as 'Gore vs. Bush' and 'U.S. vs. Microsoft'. Once the cynical decision was made by Gore's lawyers to take the case for a selective recount to the all-Democrat Florida Supreme Court, the ultimate outcome was clear even to this non-lawyer. Harris' status as Secretary of State required her to certify the election; her work on the Bush campaign is cited as a conflict of interest, while the subterranean role of the state's highest law-enforcement officer, the Attorney-General (who was the one who called Al Gore to tip him not to concede) is chastely overlooked. Gee, I wonder why?

You don't have a clue, do you?

Milkshake (or is it Kool-Ade) Drinker: The cheating by the GOP both in 2000 and 2004 is not really that hard to ferret out. Basically it was a combination of collusion iwth Diebold and Sequia officials and the time honored Republican tradition of voter caging. Being that you seem to be a patriotic sort of citizen, I'm assuming that you are bound and determined to see a thorough federal investigation of these and other previous elections to get to the truth. You know, a federal probe as lengthy, costly and partisan as, say, the Clinton Whitewater investigation.

Good one Stevejbons.

As a lawyer, Milkshake, I can tell you that Katherine Harris did NOT follow the letter of the law ... and relying on that Republican lobbyist for advice was clearly highly improper.

And I couldn't disagree more with Troy Patterson. Even though I knew the ending, I was riveted throughout.

Did anyone follow the letter of the law in that mess? Did the Gore Camp follow the letter of the law when dialing up the Democratic Attorney General for a favorable advisory opinion?

I thought the film did a very good job of depicting the cynical approach both sides employed during that whole fiasco. All the votes should be counted, well at least all the votes in these four counties where we think it will go our way. Oh, and by the way, lets see if we can disallow some of those mail in ballots from military bases overseas, since they trend Republican.

I laughed out loud, when at the end of the movie the Dennis Leary character asked if the Supreme Court would have shut it down if it was Bush asking for the recount. The same could have been asked of the partisan Florida Supreme Court. There were few honest players in the whole mess. Everyone was interested in a win, at any cost. If the Democrats had prevailed, Republicans would be the ones crying they were robbed.

One thing that bothered me in the film was how women were portrayed. According to the film, they were either weak or stupid. On the other hand, the men from both parties were portrayed as cunning and competent. Katherine Harris certainly was not an honest broker during this brawl, but HBO was not satisfied with depicting that. Instead they went with some cartoon character, which I found a bit sexist.

I also found it interesting how the producers of the film portrayed Lieberman as somehow responsible for Gore losing, simply because he would not jump on board with the cynical strategy to throw out military mail-in ballots. I seem to recollect Joe Lieberman carried his home state. Both the sitting President and Vice President could not deliver theirs. That had a great deal more significance with Gore loosing that election than a few dimpled chad. That glaring failure also did not make it into the film. Sort of an Inconvienent Truth.

And now, Florida is at the center on another electoral mess. This time it is not the US Supreme Court calling the shots. It is the DNC now saying counting all the votes is not all it is cracked up to be. Maybe in seven years, Hillary will get her movie.

I agree with your assessment of the Florida fiasco, with one exception.

Katherine Harris actually is a cartoon character. They didn't have to fake that.

One of many examples.

Katherine Harris did not only reside over one the Florida leg of the most controversial elections in recent American history, she also resided over one of the most controversial disenfranchisement efforts in modern history. Its estimated 10s of 1000s of African Americans were disenfranchised- either their votes were cast out, or they were denied voting due to various reasons.

Despite all of this, Harris was elected to the Congress and served a few terms. She even ran for the GOP nomination when the US Senate seat opened up. One of her telltale remarks was that no nonChristian, including Muslim, Hindu, atheist, etc. should be allowed to run for office or serve in office. GOP leaders throughout the south distanced themselves from her and she failed to win the GOP nomination by a wide margin, instead former Orange county mayor, Cuban American, HUD official Mel Martinez won it and eventually went to the Senate, thereby saving the face of the GOP from the disaster of a Harris senate candidacy.

Harris was well known for her facial appearance, but also her intentional use of her looks, including her buxom profile, to win supporters. I recall during the Senate bid, she did a FOXnews interview where she turned in profile so her large mammaries were quite apparent for several minutes. I've never seen anyone be so outright about that- perhaps because I don't watch the Playboy channel.

Anyways, apparently her husband's a millionaire, so there's not much to pity- she can ride horses on their big ranch and do fundraisers, maybe even help a charity or too.