Just How Long Has Gore Got?

Al Gore's "here's-why-I'm-in-court" p.r. offensive continued its new, apparently daily pace Wednesday with a "Today" show interview with NBC's Claire Shipman that seemed exclusively aimed at offsetting that day's AP article calling him a "lost soul." A resolutely calm Gore told Shipman he believes he won the election, and put his chances of proving it in court at "50-50." (He also sleeps seven or eight hours a night.)

Congressional Democrats are still betting on him. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle and House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt even told Gore and Lieberman so Monday afternoon in that ridiculously scripted, nationally televised "conference call." The Washington Post and the New York Times, making the rounds of members in both houses, found that support for the vice president's cause runs pretty deep.

But that support is inspired less by Gore himself than by the fact that they're Democrats, and with 2002 on the line they'll do whatever the base says, and the base says Gore won. (Bob Kerrey's strident appearances in Florida for Gore's cause are widely credited to his own presidential ambitions in 2004 should Gore come up short.) And because the Republicans, from the orchestrated Miami-Dade "mob" to Gephardt nemesis Tom DeLay, have really been pissing them off.

But there's a limit. "This cannot go on forever," Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, one of Gore's long-listers for veep, told the Times. The Florida Supreme Court bought Gore some time Nov. 17 when it nixed Katherine Harris's first attempt at certification. The U.S. Supreme Court moved the goal line again on Thanksgiving Friday when it took up Bush's appeal. So when could the next look at a political "forever" come along?

Friday, Dec. 1 (?) The Supremes hear arguments on the Bush appeal. A pro-Bush ruling — essentially tossing out all the events between Nov. 14 and Harris's certification Nov. 26 — wouldn't legally deprive Gore of his contest, but the voice of the highest court in the land might cut his political knees out from under him, if it rules promptly. A ruling for Gore would bless his hand counts and buy him another week at least. (Wild card: Rehnquist writes a remedy.)

Saturday, Dec. 2 (?) Leon County Circuit Court Judge Sanders Sauls will hold a hearing to determine, among other things, whether the critical Miami-Dade undervotes should be counted. If Sauls rules against Gore, he'll merely send David Boies across the street to the Florida Supremes (Boies may be there before then, looking for an immediate start to the counting). But with all the media attention sure be lavished on the Saturday hearing, the Sunday talkies could start a new round of calls for Gore to concede.

Friday, Dec. 8 (?) If Sauls rules for Gore, that's the projected end of the Miami-Dade undervote hand count. (As we know by now, it's an approximate target at best.) Gore may have help from his demand for a recount of the hand recount in Palm Beach (not enough dimples, says the Gore team), and the thousands of absentee ballots in Seminole and Martin counties are a wild card. But by the end of next week, Gore will need the numbers or he'll likely be told to go back to Tennessee, with any remaining "clouds" over Bush's election happily invoked by his party in 2002.

But would he go? A true believer needs no support. Pressed for a finish line, Gore gave Shipman a firm "middle of December" — suggesting that maybe he's not as intent on finishing by December 12, when Florida chooses its electors, as David Boies would like us to think. One thing about the law: You can argue until Washington freezes over, which in this case is January 20.

And then, to paraphrase that Palm Beach sleeper hit Pat Buchanan, you can argue on the ice.