In My Time by Dick Cheney; Liz Cheney

Author:Dick Cheney; Liz Cheney
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Autobiography.Politics & Religon
ISBN: 9781439176191
Publisher: Threshold Editions
Published: 2011-08-01T00:00:00+00:00

Liz and Mary on election night 2000 reacting to the news that the networks had called the election for George W. Bush and me. It was a premature – but nonetheless heartfelt–celebration. (Photo by David Kennerly)

The networks had now called Florida for George Bush, and at 1:30 a.m. Austin time, Al Gore had called Bush to concede. Liz handed me the phone, and Governor Bush got on the line. He told me about Gore’s call and suggested that I bring the family over to the Governor’s Mansion so we could ride together to the victory celebration at the state capitol, where a large crowd had been standing outside for hours.

As we prepared to leave to join the Bushes, Don Evans was on his cell phone talking to Gore’s campaign manager, Bill Daley. “Gore’s in talking to his family,” he reported. “They are taking it hard, and he’s asked us to give him a little while with them before he makes his concession speech.” Of course we understood, and we headed over to the Governor’s Mansion thinking we would watch Gore’s concession speech there.

We left the hotel through the kitchen as we nearly always did when the Secret Service was with us. As we walked through, surrounded by our family, Lynne looked at me and said, “What’s wrong? You don’t seem as happy as you should be.” She read me well. I couldn’t say why, exactly, but I thought we were celebrating too soon. “This just doesn’t feel right,” I told her.

I put those thoughts aside as we walked into the family celebration that was already under way at the Governor’s Mansion. President George H. W. Bush and Barbara were there along with Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Al and Ann Simpson had come with us from the hotel. We all crowded around a tiny, antiquated television in the sitting room on the first floor of the ornate old mansion and watched footage of empty stages in Austin and Nashville, where Gore’s campaign headquarters was located. The networks were all marking time until Gore made his concession official so that Bush could then make his victory speech. But then there was another phone call for the governor. It was Al Gore, calling to retract his concession.

As the Bush margin in Florida grew smaller and smaller, everyone started looking to Jeb Bush for answers and hope. He was in the corner of the room with my chief of staff, Kathleen Shanahan, huddled over a computer screen. They were logged on to the Florida secretary of state’s website trying to follow the vote count directly as it was posted. When the governor of Texas walked into the room looking for information, his brother, the governor of Florida, whispered to Kathleen, “Just don’t make eye contact with him,” hoping to avoid a barrage of questions he couldn’t yet answer.

Everybody was angry and frustrated with Gore. Who retracts a concession? In 1976 the election had also been very close, and we had decided to sleep on it and see how things looked in the morning before making any decision about conceding to Carter.

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