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High above the Supreme Court’s door,
are the words: “Equal Justice Under Law,”
so full honor to those magnificent four
whose names shall endureth for evermore
Oh, but shame on those shameless five
who with intricate, abstract judicial jive1
took the crudest possible political dive
to keep Bush’s dimming hopes alive,
and with their supreme contempt decreed
that Republicans would henceforth be freed
from that absolutely inconvenient need
to observe our ancient democratic creed.
When a judge orders, “Stop the counting!”
it’s time for citizens to start mounting
protests demanding the complete accounting
of votes that appeared to be surmounting
a governor who should be more hesitant,
after this latest bush-league impediment,
to take the prescribed oath as president,
and become the White House’s new resident.
The two men who knew the actual score
are named George Bush and Albert Gore,
the latter, understandably, a little sore,
while the former should just be shown the door,
for the right to rule exclusively devolves
from a vote margin that continuously evolves,
rather than one that progressively dissolves,
and an election count that conclusively resolves,
and not one that goes nine-tenths of the way
and leaves us, in the end, unable to say
if it’s the winner who finally won the day,
or the loser who we’re supposed to obey.
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1. They argued their stay prevented a harm
that would have set off poor Bushy’s alarm,
even if the votes proved Gore’s lucky charm,
the Constitution required they break Al’s arm.
They supported this case with complex citation
to a precedent established in some distant nation,
then a convoluted argument full of obfuscation
about a right to barbecue–and inauguration.
Contact Bill Schechter