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Gay Activist Blasts Jeb Bush, Florida’s ‘Vote Thief’

resident Bill Clinton broke his silence about Election 2000 two weeks ago in Chicago, as he told a large assembly of Democrats that Al Gore had, in fact, won, and that Bush had succeeded only because he’d managed to stop a legitimate recount of votes in Florida.

Outside the meeting the President explained to reporters what he’d told the Democratic faithful: "What I told them upstairs was Bill Daley ran the first presidential campaign in history that was so clearly winning, a court had to stop the vote in order to change the outcome."

Then, Clinton joked about the state of Washington at a fund raising luncheon. "They have this unusual system in Washington State," he said, "They actually count all the votes!"

On the following day, the U.S. President promised Americans he’d speak out on behalf of the disenfranchised. "And remember," he said, "Even though I won’t be president, I’ll always be with you until the last dog dies."

Last Saturday, the New York Times—shamelessly ignoring the subject as legitimate news—printed an ad, a joint statement by ‘554 Professor of Law’ condemning the U.S.

Supreme Court as both partisan and propagandistic for its Election 2000 decision on behalf of Bush. By nightfall, the number of law professors had risen to 585: www.the-rule-of-law.com

Last week veteran gay activist Bob Kunst drove at night for nine hours from Miami Beach to Tallahassee so that he could protest the following day what he insists has been Florida’s purposeful disenfranchisement of minority voters, those who were believed certain to oppose Bush during the election..

Kunst told me:
"The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights was meeting, investigating 450 complaints brought by the NAACP about voter irregularities. I think irregularities is too kind a word. I prefer fraud."

Florida, testified one expert who addressed the Commission, has a history of voter abuse.

Positioned in the cold during morning rush hour outside the Commission meeting at the Holiday Inn on Tennessee Street, Kunst held up two signs. He was wearing his crown. The signs read "Bush Stole the Election" and "Jail to the Thief!" Drivers, their thumbs up, passed in droves on their way to work, beeping their horns in approval.

Kunst then attended the Commission meeting which, initially, was postponed because of electronic malfunctions. The activist joked about the circuit break, "Now our Civil Rights Commission knows what sorts of things went on in the voting booths."

The Commission first heard testimony from three African-Americans. One, a woman, had been stopped by five highway patrolmen near a minority neighborhood precinct. A black minister, falsely accused of having served time as a felon, was initially disallowed his voting privileges until after he’d threatened legal action.

A third black citizen said he’d felt intimidated by a police vehicle parked outside the voting precinct. None of these complaintants had been invited, said Kunst, to address Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s election reform committee. "This Jeb Bush committee is more fluff than substance," charged Kunst, "and the last thing Florida needs is more fluff."

Standing next to two marshals and behind three witnesses, Kunst’s visage was transported through TV news cameras into countless living rooms. He was taking notes for his online site www.OralMajorityOnline.com

"I’m not sure how I looked on camera," he said, "Did I look like Lois Lane or Clark Kent?" He was wearing his "Fraud W. Bush" button on one lapel and on the other lapel, "Stop Thief! Stop Bush!"

Outside the meeting a host of news cameras converged, waiting for Governor Jeb Bush. "He’s already slipped into the rear, if you’ll excuse the expression" Kunst joked to those around him. But afterwards, upon the Governor’s exit, Kunst advanced to the foreground shouting "Bush! You stole the election." Security guards pushed him ten feet away from the Governor, warning him not to interfere while Bush spoke to the media.

As soon as Bush had finished speaking, however, Kunst, flanked by his two signs, loudly accused the governor of betraying Florida and America, calling upon him to resign.

"Our Freedom Riders—a busload-- will be at your mansion at 9a.m. next Thursday demanding your resignation, Kunst yelled. As Bush stepped into his SUV, both Florida and national media—approximately 30 strong--turned and gave their full attention to Kunst.

"Twenty out of sixty Florida counties never bothered to re-count by machine as they’d been required by law to do," he explained to the reporters from major urban dailies. An attorney suing Bush on behalf of the disabled, complimented the activist, explaining that Florida also errs in that it provides no access to voting machines for its disabled citizens.

Two expert technical witnesses told Kunst that the twenty recalcitrant Florida counties represented 1,800,000 votes that were never re-counted, a figure that has not yet appeared in the media. Kunst, however, relayed this figure to the BBC.

Kunst said:
"In replying to Clinton today, Bush fell back on his same old truthless mantra, namely that there’s already been sufficient re-counting and that another re-count is therefore unnecessary. But, when President Clinton told the nation that Bush had won because the counting had been stopped, I don’t think he realized that 1,800,000 votes—many more than had previously been thought-- had not, in fact, been re-counted."

Asking one technical expert’s opinion about who would have won the election had a proper recount taken place, Kunst was told, "I would have said it was Bush who won until this figure of 1,800,000 that were not re-counted has emerged in such a vital way."

The activist demanded a reply, as he spoke to reporters:

"The question now is how did twenty county election supervisors ignore state law requiring a mandatory re-count—unless they were part of the whole Bushit family conspiracy to steal the election.

A star witness from Iowa informed Kunst that such problems hadn’t arisen in his less populated state because more modern technology had been in use. But Kunst replied that Florida’s elections have, for thirty years, been all too easy to rig because, in certain neighborhoods, antiquated technology is still purposefully in use.

The testimony of Jeb Bush, according to Kunst, was "totally self-serving" in that he refused to take any responsibility for the electoral fiasco. But the U.S. Commission chair advised Bush that the Florida governor had refused, unfortunately, to reform the state’s long-faulty electoral process.

"Jeb didn’t want any changes," Kunst told reporters, because he needed to be able to steal the election for his brother. And he did."

As I write, Kunst is preparing his packed Freedom Bus to leave Miami at 6:30 p.m.

He’ll keep his promise to heckle Jeb at his governor’s mansion tomorrow morning.

From there his freedom band will demonstrate at the U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta and then in Virginia, at the Falwell and Robertson headquarters. Finally, the indefatigable gay activist— foolishly branded a "leftist" by gay Log Cabin Republicans, will join thousands of others protesting on Saturday the illegitimate installation of George W. Bush as president.

Oral Majority Online: www.oralmajorityonline.com

Jack Nichols is the author of The Gay Agenda: Talking Back to the Fundamentalists (Prometheus Books, 1996) Of Men’s Liberation: A New Definition of Masculinity (Penguin Books, 1975) and of Welcome to Fire Island: Visions of Cherry Grove and The Pines (St. Martin’s Press, 1976)

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