When Good News Hits, Remember, There’s No Telling What’s Around the Corner

WASHINGTON —  In Washington, Al Gore was on the telephone with one of his senior legal advisors in Florida and the news was good: The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta had decided not to block the recount of votes in Florida.

But just as Ron Klain, the advisor, was completing that Saturday afternoon report to Gore, he received word of another court ruling, which he immediately relayed: The Supreme Court in Washington had just ordered a halt to the tally.

At the same time, George W. Bush, in a Chevrolet Suburban, was touring his ranch in Crawford, Texas, with guests when his cell phone rang. Donald Evans, his campaign chairman, briefly outlined the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision.

Reaction from the two presidential contenders was true to form: From Bush, elation, readily expressed; from Gore, steely determination to soldier on.

“Great, great news,” the Texas governor was said to have told Evans.

“He’s disappointed,” the vice president’s deputy campaign manager, Mark D. Fabiani, said of Gore.

Neither candidate spoke in public.

Bush had left Austin early Saturday morning for his 1,600-acre ranch about two hours away.

When the Supreme Court order came down, the governor’s aides in Austin were scrambling to decide how to respond to the Atlanta ruling denying Bush’s plea to end the recount.

On the telephone with GOP officials in Tallahassee from Bush campaign headquarters in Austin, spokesman Dan Bartlett heard a roar go up over the line. Hearing of the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Bartlett shouted it out to the few people in the office Saturday afternoon, among them Andrew H. Card Jr., Bush’s choice for White House chief of staff, and campaign spokeswoman Karen Hughes, who is likely to have a senior White House job in a Bush administration.

“People were happy,” Bartlett said, acknowledging spirits were much higher than they were the day before, when the Florida Supreme Court ordered the recount.

Bush, having quickly ended the cheery call from Evans, called back his boyhood friend--one of his closest confidants--a few minutes later to receive a more thorough report.

But even as the excitement swelled in Austin, it was tempered by the recollection of the emotional twists and turns of the last few weeks.

“At this point you may feel good, but you have to be very cautious, very cognizant that a turn could be right around the corner,” Bartlett said.

When the day started, Gore’s aides had been contemplating some sort of photo opportunity--a chance to show the vice president getting on with his life while also providing a smidgen of sound and video for evening news programs and a picture for Sunday’s front pages.

Perhaps Gore would go on an abbreviated Christmas shopping trip. A friend, Gov. Donald Siegelman of Alabama, was planning to drop by the official vice presidential residence, and camera crews and reporters might be invited to the front door for a sound-bite opportunity.

But the U.S. Supreme Court’s action halted such plans.

As court dates have loomed, the Gore camp has been generally careful to hew to a course of low visibility. Reverting quickly to what one aide called “a posture of practiced nonchalance,” the Gore team went underground.

The vice president stayed at his house at the Naval Observatory on the chilly but sunny afternoon; campaign chairman Bill Daley, who moments before the court order halted the counting had spoken out readily on Capitol Hill, left the official commenting to the legal team in Florida.

“We’re not going to do anything that could be seen as trying to lobby the court,” Fabiani said.

Shortly before Gore heard from Klain, he had spoken on a midday conference call with friends and supporters. The vice president then was still relishing the Florida Supreme Court decision calling for the statewide recount.

“Years from now, we’ll be telling our grandchildren about this,” Gore said. “I think you all will be able to take pride in the fact that, despite great pressure, you fought valiantly for our democratic values.”

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Gerstenzang reported from Washington, Garvey from Austin, Texas.