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"He's done a good job of ducking
when the mud is thrown," said
University of Virginia political scien-
tist Larry Sabato. "I've been
impressed with how reasonable he
sounds in the midst of all this. So
far, he seems to be protected from
some of the negative reaction."
This week, Lieberman took to the
airwaves, making the case for "count-
ing every vote" in the contested
Florida contest. But he generally
struck a conciliatory tone even as the
campaign staffs of the two presiden-
tial candidates and their teams of
big-name recount lawyers hurled
public accusations and began a war
of attrition in the courts.
"We want the next president, who-
ever he is, to take office with a sense
of legitimacy about him without mil-
lions of the American people who
supported the other candidate saying,
`We were robbed,'" Lieberman said
on CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday.
Gilbert Kahn, a Kean University
political scientist, said that
Lieberman "has taken a very clever
posture this week. He's trying to
come across with lawyerly restraint.
If he's seen as someone who can
bring some dignity to this process, it
will be a major political plus for
him."
Lieberman was a star performer on
the campaign trail, Kahn said, and
he proved his mettle as a top
Democratic fundraiser. Those factors
will make him a formidable con-
tender in 2004 — if he can avoid
being drawn too directly into the
Florida blood bath.

Push For Pollard

Jewish leaders who want President Bill
Clinton to commute the sentence of
convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard
are ratcheting up their efforts in the
closing days of the administration.
There's no mystery about the rea-
sons for the new urgency; Clinton,
now a lame duck, has nothing to lose
by freeing Pollard. But after Jan. 20,
the commutation calculus will look
very different no matter who wins the
disputed presidential election.
In recent days, several top religious
leaders have written to Clinton urg-
ing clemency and asking him to
accelerate his promised review of the
case.
In virtually identical letters, Rabbi
David Saperstein of the Religious
Action Center of Reform Judaism,
Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman, presi-
dent of the Hebrew Union College,
and Dr. Mandell Ganchrow, presi-

dent of the Orthodox Union, urged
Clinton to take into consideration
new legal action by Pollard's lawyers
in Washington.
In October, Pollard's lawyers filed a
motion in federal district court in
Washington asking for a new sentenc-
ing hearing, claiming that his original
lawyers mishandled the first one.
As a result, "Mr. Pollard was sen-
tenced to life in prison on the basis of
false allegations, and under circum-
stances that violated his plea agree-
,
ment, ' according to all three letters.
Saperstein emphasized his view that
still-secret court documents should be
released. "It's time for the govern-
ment to explain what it's never
explained: what, exactly, is the nature
of the damage that was done that
could conceivably justify this sen-
tence?" he said.
Backers of clemency are acutely
aware that the next president will
take up the Pollard issue from a dif-
ferent starting point.
Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), the
Democratic vice-presidential nomi-
nee, has come out strongly against
releasing Pollard; his Republican
counterpart, former Defense
Secretary Richard Cheney, has been
even more vehement in opposing
clemency for Pollard.

Losing Squeakers

Although there will be a net increase
in the number of Jewish members of
the House of Representatives in
January, Jewish candidates came up
on the losing end of two bitter bat-
tles that were too close to call until
late last week.
In New Jersey, Republican chal-
lenger Dick Zimmer, fighting to
regain the House seat he abandoned
four years ago in an unsuccessful
Senate bid, apparently lost by several
hundred votes to Democratic Rep.
Rush Holt.
If he had won, Zimmer would
have been the third Jewish
Republican in the House. Eric
Cantor, a Republican from a
Richmond, Va., suburb, will join
Rep. Ben Gilman (N.Y.), the only
Jewish Republican in the 106th
Congress, when the new Congress
convenes in January.
In Florida, a strong effort by State
Representative Elaine Bloom to
unseat Republican incumbent Clay
Shaw apparently ended in failure —
barely — when a sample precinct
recount failed to improve her stand-
ing. Bloom, a Democrat, lost by a
mere 500 votes.

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