The Ace in the Pocket

Florida Legislature,
December 7, 2000
Ann Telnaes

Telnaes drew this cartoon based on Democratic candidate Al Gore's lawyers' final effort in his quest for the presidency. They appealed to the Florida State Supreme Court to count 14,000 disputed ballots before the December 12, 2000 deadline for selecting presidential electors. The Republican-dominated Florida Legislature meanwhile prepared to convene a special session for December 8, 2000, to appoint a group of presidential electors who would support George W. Bush. Bush's brother Jeb was Florida's governor. "If the Supreme Court hadn't made the decision, then the Florida legislature would have decided whether [or] not the governor's brother was going to become president," Telnaes observes. "This cartoon's about that ace in the GOP's pocket."

(In 2001 Ann Telnaes became the second woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning. This cartoon and others can be seen at http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/telnaes/telnaes-pulitzer.html)