Archive: James Thurber

Veteran CBS News White House Correspondent Bill Plante is the host of CBSNews.com's Smoke-Filled Room. Each week, Bill invites a top political expert into the Smoke-Filled Room to answer your questions. Today’s guest is Dr. James Thurber, Professor of Government at American University in Washington, D.C. Thurber is also Director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at A.U.

Plante: Our first viewer, Tonya Nardi writes, "There has been a great deal of controversy surrounding the Electoral College since the media began reporting that while Al Gore won the popular vote, it looked like he was going to lose the election. In fact, most of the rest of the world seems to find the concept a very confusing one. But isn't this what the Electoral College was designed to do - prevent someone from winning an election by winning a few heavily populated areas?"

Thurber: You are correct, the electoral college is working as designed. It protects the small states from being overwhelmed by the large populous ones. It is a form of representative democracy rather than direct democracy.

Plante: The commentators keep saying that whoever becomes president will be shackled by the other party and doomed to failure. Do you agree? What can the next president do to have that not happen?

Thurber: The election was a tie, for the presidency, the US Senate, and the House and for many state legislative assemblies. The mandate is to move ahead incrementally and to act in a bipartisan manner. Whether the new president is able to bring more comity and bipartisanship to Washington depends upon his ability to build coalitions in the middle with ideologically moderate Democrats and Republicans in the House and the Senate. The party holding the White House traditionally looses seats in the House and the Senate. Thus if history holds, the new president will lose the House and the Senate in 2002. Historically, presidents who have won the electoral vote and not the popular vote have only been one-term presidents. The new president must work with both parties in order to over come these historic trends and to build a success policy record.

Plante: R.M. notes, "I'm confused about the role and the rights of the Florida legislature. The Democrats say its involvement would be a partisan railroad job. The Republicans say it's doing just what the Constitution intended. Which is it?"

Thurber: According to the Florida Constitution, the Florida legislature has the ultimate authority to appoint the electors from their state, not the courts. The Republicans have the majority in the Florida House and Senate, thus it is very likely they will certify the Bush electors, if necessary and given the opportunity. It is not against the Florida's constitution for the legislature to act, but it is likely to look highly partisan.

Plante: "Is it realitic to think that the justices of the Supreme Court will transcend partisanship and their own backgrounds in this case?" asks Karen.

Thurber: I think the Supreme Court will transcend their partisan backgrounds in this very important case. They will most likely decide that Florida has the right and authority to decide it owns rules for its election.

Plante: "Who is paying for the recounts and for the court cases?" Roy Stricker wants to know.

Thurber: The recounts are being paid for by the public. The lawyers in the court cases are being paid from private funds.

Plante: And finally Ted Sitnik writes, "Assuming Bush prevails, how will history treat Mr. Gore's contesting of the Florida election?"

Thurber: Assuming Bush prevails in Florida and is our next president, history will treat Mr. Gore as a footnote to a unique election. He will not be condemned for contesting the election and he will be remembered as Vice President and the candidate who got the popular vote and not the Electoral College vote, like three other presidential candidates in our history.