As you are reading this there may have been a tentative decision in the presidential election in Florida.

Of course, everything is tentative because the legal wrangling will undoubtedly continue.

Eventually there will be a winner, but in the meantime, it has been fun watching politicians paint themselves into corners and make hypocrites of themselves throughout the madness.

Let's start with the Bush campaign. Remember George W.'s campaign ads.

He told us something like, "My opponent trusts government, I trust people."

That hue and cry has been coming from the Republicans for decades. They favor limited government. They favor letting states control things. They favor keeping federal interference to a minimum.

And at the outset, former secretary of state James Baker and GOP hired hands warned of the impending judicialization of the Florida election process.

Uh huh.

So when the Democrats ask for a hand recount, the Republicans - protectors of states' rights that they are - sue in federal court to stop the hand recounts.

And when they lose at that level, they take it to the 11th circuit federal court in Atlanta.

As of Friday afternoon, we were still waiting for that result, but so much for state autonomy.

And the Democrats, while never known as big protectors of states' rights, started out the whole mess by saying that Florida's state laws must be followed.

That sounded good until the secretary of state of Florida imposed the 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline for certifying votes, according to state law.

Then the Democrats sued to get the deadline extended, basically trying to usurp the state law.

They partially failed in that endeavor. The judge allowed the deadline to be imposed but said the secretary of state had to use discretion in determining whether to accept hand-counted ballots turned in after the deadline.

The secretary of state used her discretion and refused to certify the votes turned in after the deadline again.

Back to court we go.

The Democrats sued again, asking the court to force the secretary of state to certify the late ballots.

The court ruled that no, she didn't have to certify the late ballots and that she didn't abuse her discretion according to Florida state law.

The Democrats appealed that decision to the Florida Supreme Court and that's where things stand right now.

The state election commission most likely will certify the results of overseas absentee ballots and name a winner today.

The Democrats most likely will contest that and try to overturn it, based on their appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.

So much for following the laws of the state of Florida.

All along I have thought that I could live with whatever result came out of the Florida election if it appeared to be fair.

I had no problem with manual recounts.

But I had a big problem with manual recounts being conducted in only Democrat strongholds where it is highly likely that only Gore will gain ground.

I also had a big problem with different standards being set for hand recounts in different counties.

Seems to me all the standards for what is and is not a vote should be the same.

Regardless of the legal wrangling, there is one certainty.

No matter who wins, he will be labeled as illegitimate by half of the people in America.

The only way Gore can win is if the hand-counted ballots are certified.

If Gore wins under those conditions, he will be accused by Republicans of stealing the election by hand counting ballots in Democratic strongholds.

The only way Bush can win is if those hand-counted ballots are not certified.

If Bush wins under those conditions, he will be accused of stealing the election by thwarting the will of the voters by blocking the hand counts.

Regardless of which side you are on, it is a lose/lose situation.

And that's the way it looks like it's going to turn out.

To remedy that, I have some suggestions on how to settle the election without involving the courts.

• A hand of cards. In New Mexico, for example, if a race ends in a tie, state law says the outcome should be settled by drawing lots. In practice, the traditional method has been to play one hand of five-card stud.

According to a story in the Times of London, the last election to be settled at a card table was in December of 1999 when Jim Blanq, a Republican and Lena Milligan, a Democrat, tied for a magistrate's seat. A hand of poker at the courthouse gave the seat to Blanq.

In 1988, James Farrington became Mayor of Estancia on the back of an ace-high flush. Works for me.

• A game of paper, rock, scissors.

• A high-stakes game of Election Jeopardy. (The Bush camp would probably reject that one.)

• A staring contest. First one to blink, loses.

• A shared presidency. Two years of Bush and two years of Gore.

• Maybe they could fight a duel. A Scripps Howard editorial reminds us that Aaron Burr was vice president of the United States in 1804 when he shot Alexander Hamilton dead in New Jersey. Burr had a real problem with Hamilton. Burr tied Thomas Jefferson for president in electoral votes. Hamilton used his influence in the House of Representatives to give the election to Jefferson. To top it off, Hamilton thwarted Burr's bid for governor of New York.

Of course dueling is illegal and probably politically incorrect. And the nod would probably have to go to Bush. I mean, the guy has a ranch and likes to hunt. So the Gore camp probably would take a dim view of a presidential duel.

Know what? Maybe they should save us all the agony and flip for it. [[In-content Ad]]