Fellow Dems,

The only way we Democrats can come out of this with minimum damage is for Brother Gore to now declare his opponent the winner and take the statesman's high road home. Hear me out.

Sure, there are genuine issues we all would like to see resolved, but attempting to resolve them will cost the party virtually all its goodwill among uncommitted voters and the (few) fair-minded Republicans, not to mention a great many in our own party.

And that's just the beginning.

We can't gain anything worth gaining by fighting on. Certainly a Gore occupancy of the White House under a GOP Congress isn't worth gaining at this point. It would be a nightmare. The first GOP hack special prosecutor would be appointed in less than a week to investigate election irregularities, the second hack SP within a month to investigate Buddhist templegate, and the GOP Congress wouldn't stop there.

Every week there would be press leaks "proving" in precinct after precinct how the Democrats "stole the election." Under the curse of 10,000 anecdotes we would read of every slight and every miniscule polling place mis-cue, much like the ones we read here on Loper's page.

The GOP goes for the jugular. Us? We re too proud of being decent folks, politically correct folks, to be all-out nasty. After 4 years of coordinated attacks on Democrats individually and universally, profoundly unfair attacks of the type we read everytime James Baker opens his mouth, attacks the pundits and the public clearly love, "Democrat" will be a dirty word for a generation.

One man can lose a Presidency by walking away now, or he can fight on and on in a state controlled by his opponent's brother. If this were happening in Bosnia we'd see it for what it is. But it's not Bosnia, it's Florida, it's our party, it's our opponent, and we can't see the forest for the bushes.

Give it up with dignity. But don't stop there. Don't ever stop there. Turn it to our advantage.

Everytime Bush does something wrong, go on the air and explain why Dems would have done it differently in ways people can understand. Democrats are the party of the people. That sort of thing plays to our strength. And in Bill Clinton we have the best fireside chat explainer since FDR.

Everytime Bush rapes the environment, go on the air and explain what he's done, and why Dems would have acted differently. And each time be sure to thank Ralph Nader and his "No difference between them" for the rape. Nader convinced a lot of voters there was no difference. We need to educate them that there is, one point at a time.

The Florida election got loused up. That can't be undone. But as I see it, the Democratic Party can be undone, will be undone, if we insist on our rights and having our day after day in court.

If after weeks of struggle we lose Florida, we will earn the image of pitiable, desperate losers. If in the end we win, it will be the second OJ pyrrhic victory.

Rey Barry (electronic mail, November 30, 2000).