Thompson: Bush Team Made Gains

Gore lead counsel David Boies began with a 15-minute explanation of how he would prove that five separate county canvassing board errors cost Gore votes he deserved to win.

Bush lead attorney Barry Richard took a mere five minutes to say this: "The only issue before this court is whether the canvassing boards abused their discretion in how they counted votes, which is a very high standard of proof for Mr. Boies to meet. Mr. Boies wants the law changed so that as soon as votes are cast, we pack up the ballots on election night and ship them to a judge in Tallhassee to count. No canvassing boards, no state election law, just a judge to replace the whole system. When we are done with the evidence, Mr. Boies had better present some case authority for that approach, because that is what he wants."

The first witness called by Gore's lawyers was a Kimball Brace, who reminded this reporter of the famous comedian Professor Irwin Correy, "the world's foremost authority."

He had every opinion imaginable as to why computer ballots are not reliable, but almost no evidence to back up his theories.

Bush attorney Phil Beck carved him up on cross-examination so thoroughly that the lawyers and mainstream media sitting around me were laughing at him.

Judge Sauls, in this reporter/trial lawyer's opinion, let witness Brace go far beyond his narrow area of expertise to thereby give the Bush team a clear shot at discrediting him and getting this insanity over with.

Outside the courtroom, during the luncheon break, I got to meet Sen. John Ashcroft of Missouri, whose seat was narrowly stolen from him by Democrat shenanigans three weeks ago, which included a Democrat judge who used to be Dick Gephardt's chief of staff keeping the polls open in predominantly black districts with an emergency and ultimately overturned court order.

Sen. Ashcroft was graciously explaining to CNN why this nonnsense should stop.

Behind Sen. Ashcroft stood an evangelist in monk's garb with a 15-foot cross, proclaiming to all that could not avoid hearing that God did not care about what we are doing here.

But even Al Gore said "this election is a choice between good and evil." It is increasingly hard to disagree with the veep on that one.

And there behind the monk, out of the spotlight but the reason for all this fuss in Tallahassee, were close to 100 Bush faithful, some of them all the way from California, middle-class folks who wanted to be near history and who wanted to lend their signs – many of them hilarious and original – to the struggle in which we all find ourselves.

I walked over to them to thank them, as the folks in suits and ties seemed to be ignoring them.

I introduced myself to them and said, "Hi, I'm Jack Thompson, I'm a lawyer here from Miami for NewsMax.com. Their cheer startled me. The reach of NewsMax is farther than I knew.

I began to explain the extent to which Mr. Boies is "ethically challenged." He failed to alert the Florida Supreme Court that he had given them a false sworn affidavit that interprets the Illinois "dimpled chad" case. The same affadavit has been replaced by another affidavit rebutting the first one. As I was speaking, I got a call on my cell phone.

It was NewsMax.com editor Chris Ruddy. I announced to the crowd who was on the phone. They let out a cheer that was probably heard all the way back to Palm Beach without the aid of cellular technology.

There is silliness in the courtroom here, and fervency on the sidewalk. America will survive if we can hold on to the latter.