And most Republicans, including Bush, have long opposed both statehood and congressional voting rights. So there is nothing startling in the president's position. The shock is in the attitude. I would think that Florida would make him more sensitive to the issue. The U.S. Civil Rights Commission, in its interim report on what went wrong in the 2000 election, found that it wasn't the chads.
Voter disenfranchisement appears to be at the heart of the issue.
The final report, due in June, is likely to reach the same conclusion, said commission chairwoman Mary Frances Berry. None of it has touched the conscience of the nation's lawmakers. Congress has failed so far to move forward on any aspect of election reform. The White House has put forward no bill of its own and allocated not a penny to finance a reform effort. The next election debacle is likely to occur in almost any state that finds itself with a skintight contest.