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Expect Republicans to cry foul as soon as they see how they’re portrayed in “Recount,” HBO’s docudrama about the aftermath of the 2000 presidential election in Florida (premieres May 25).
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Right at the outset, Bush campaign consigliere James Baker refers to the budding controversy as a “street fight,” while his Gore campaign counterpart, Warren Christopher, talks of compromise and presenting America’s best face to the world. So it goes throughout the rest of the film, as Bush’s people coldly look for any way to win.
Nevertheless, the filmmakers use Gore aide Ron Klain (played by Kevin Spacey) to make a couple of telling points about the Gore camp. First, as Klain takes reporters’ phone calls late on election night, it appears that Bush may win the popular vote and Gore the electoral college (the opposite, as it turns out, of what actually happened). “Gov. Bush is going to have to respect the process no matter what the outcome,”says Klain, not knowing that he’s about to be on the other side of that coin.
And later, several weeks into the recount fight, Klain says in an aside, “You know what’s funny about this? I’m not even sure I like Al Gore.”
