A US Supreme Court Justice, Ms Sandra Day O'Connor, was upset during an election-night party when she heard Florida was first called for Vice President Al Gore, according to a report in Newsweek magazine released yesterday. She exclaimed: "This is terrible."
The report said Justice O'Connor made the comment on November 7th at about 8 p.m. (1 a.m. Irish time, November 8th) and declared the news meant the election was "over" because Mr Gore had also won two other key states.
Quoting two witnesses Newsweek said that Justice O'Connor then walked off to get a plate of food and her husband, John, explained to friends that she was upset because they wanted to retire to Arizona. A Gore presidency meant they would have to wait another four years because she did not want a Democrat to name her successor.
Not long after Florida was called for Mr Gore, news organisations retracted the call and said Florida was too close to be awarded to either candidate. The state was then called for Mr Bush, but again that call was retracted and the race remained in limbo for five weeks.
Justice O'Connor (70) had been Republican majority leader of the Arizona State Senate before being appointed to the US Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
The magazine said in its edition due out today her remarks would probably fuel criticism that high court justices "sought to influence" election returns in their ruling in George W. Bush v. Albert Gore Jr. The ruling ended the impasse over the presidential election.
Newsweek, seeking a response from Justice O'Connor to the accounts of her election-night comment, said that a high court spokesman said she had no comment.
In its story, Newsweek noted that Justice O'Connor had no way of knowing that the networks' early call saying Gore had won Florida's electoral votes was premature. Nor could she have known that five weeks later she would play a direct and decisive role in the election of his Republican rival.
The magazine added that O'Connor could not possibly have foreseen that she would be one of two swing votes in the court's 5-4 decision.
The Newsweek report came a day after the magazine released a poll that said Americans remained deeply divided over the Supreme Court's ruling. Nearly two out of three thought politics played a role in the decision. While 51 per cent said the court's decision (that hand-counts of contested ballots in Florida could not resume) was fair, 44 per cent considered it unfair, Newsweek said.
Sixty-five per cent of those surveyed believed politics or partisanship played a role in the US Supreme Court justices' decision.
A larger proportion - 81 per cent - saw politics playing a role in the decisions of Florida state courts, which in some cases ruled in favour of Mr Gore during the legal battle to determine the 43rd US president. - (Reuters)
AFP adds:
A senior aide to Mr Bush attacked plans for a European defence force, describing them as "a dagger pointed at NATO's heart" the Sunday Times reported yesterday.
Defence specialist Mr John Bolton said relations with Britain would have to be reassessed because of the proposals. "We would have to pose the stark question: are you with us or with them?" Mr Bolton, who has been tipped as a possible deputy to Mr Bush's Secretary of State, Gen Colin Powell, said.
Unless NATO and the European Union worked together, the US would have to deny Britain access to intelligence, he added.
The paper also quoted Arizona senator Jon Kyl, a close friend of Mr Bush as saying: "This force cannot exist outside NATO."
The comments were the latest in a series of warnings from the US over the European plans, first from the outgoing administration and now politicians close to the incoming team.
On December 5th, US Defence Secretary, Mr William Cohen bluntly warned that NATO would become a "relic of the past" if the EU set up a competing defence structure while failing to live up to their commitments to the alliance.
The US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, while backing the idea of a force, stressed that it should not be outside NATO.
"It is very important that there .. not be a decoupling of the US from Europe," she said.
At the recent EU summit in Nice, Britain pressured France to back off from a description of the defence force that suggested it might enjoy some autonomy from NATO.
British politicians have been working hard to eliminate this element of the new proposals.