Where Left Is Right / The Old Site

Here in North Florida, we became acutely familiar -- for all the obvious (and obviously painful) reasons -- with the way the 2000 election worked out. So it was interesting to see the capital city's newspaper this morning, in particular the story headlined "Official recalls Roberts' role in Election 2000":

U.S. Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts played a broader behind-the-scenes role for the Republican camp in the aftermath of the 2000 election than previously reported - as legal consultant, lawsuit editor and prep coach for arguments before the nation's highest court, according to the man who drafted him for the job.

Ted Cruz, a Bush domestic-policy adviser who is now Texas' solicitor general, said Roberts was one of the first names he thought of while he and another attorney drafted the Republican legal dream team of litigation "lions" and "800-pound gorillas," which ultimately consisted of 400 attorneys in Florida.

Until now, Gov. Jeb Bush and others involved in the election dispute could recall almost nothing of Roberts' role, except for a half-hour meeting the governor had with Roberts sometime after the election.

Cruz said Roberts was in Tallahassee helping the Bush camp for "a week to 10 days," and that his help was important, though Cruz said it is difficult to remember specifics five years after the sleep-depriving frenetic pace of the 2000 recount.

But one thing was certain, Cruz told The Miami Herald: "There was no one better for the job."

"He's one of the best brief writers in the country. Just like a good journalist or a novelist, he can write with clarity, concisely and can paint a picture with words," Cruz said.

[...]

Roberts was a no-brainer for the recount effort: His win-loss record at the U.S. Supreme Court was one of the most impressive. And, like Cruz, he was a member of a tight-knit circle of former clerks for the court's chief justice, William Rehnquist - a group jokingly referred to as "the cabal."

Soon after getting the call from Cruz, Roberts traveled from his Washington office at Hogan & Hartson to Tallahassee to lend advice and help polish legal briefs. Later, Roberts helped participate in a dress rehearsal to prepare the Bush legal team for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Cruz's account is the first to place Roberts firmly within the Bush vs. Gore battle, filling in substantial blanks in the memories of everyone from Bush's campaign lawyer, Ben Ginsberg, to the governor.

[...]

Cruz said there are few candidates as qualified as Roberts for the Supreme Court. Roberts won 25 cases out of the 39 he argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. His secret, according to Cruz: "He does his homework for hundreds of hours."

While working on the recount, neither Roberts nor any of the other attorneys squabbled. They were too focused, Cruz said, and too worried about what they thought were the Democrats' efforts to subvert the voting process through ballot recounts divining voters' wishes on pregnant, hanging and dimpled chads.

About 30 of the 400 Republican lawyers in the election fight were based in Tallahassee, though Washington lawyers such as Olson and Roberts left for home by the end of November and remained in contact with Tallahassee lawyers by e-mail, phone and fax.

The Republicans assigned lawyers to one of five teams: the U.S. Supreme Court, the Florida Supreme Court, local county litigation, trial attorneys and military affairs. Though apparently on the federal team, Roberts' name appears on no legal briefs, a fact that Cruz attributes to Roberts' modesty.

"He already had a name. He didn't need the recognition," Cruz said. Plus, Cruz said, the lawsuit-a-day atmosphere was like "a building on fire. Everyone just grabbed a bucket."

("The Democrats' efforts to subvert the voting process." That one will have to get posted on the Great Wall of Irony.)

Whatever else you make of him, Roberts has had a remarkable habit of leaving no footprints anywhere he's trod. Perhaps it is, as the man said, just due to his modesty. It's still weird.

Update (11:10am): The story was actually written by a reporter for the Miami Herald; see the original here. No idea why the Tallahassee paper didn't identify him as such. (Thanks to Smirking Chimp for the implicit correction.)