Editor’s note: An excerpt of a script treatment now making the rounds in Hollywood is reprinted here, with apologies to Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola.

Just When They Thought They Were Done … 

THE RECOUNTER 

[FADE FROM BLACK: DARKENED INTERIOR OF THE GOVERNOR"S OFFICE IN AUSTIN, TEXAS]

BUSH: I believe in America. America has made my fortune. And I raised my son in the American fashion. I gave him freedom. But I taught him never to dishonor his family”

DUBYA: Hey, Pop”Could ya pipe down over there. Karl, Baker and I are trying to figure out what to do about this Florida recount.

ROVE [watching MSNBC]: Hey listen to this’Gore wants to talk. Imagine the nerve on that sonofabitch. He craps out on Election Day and today he wants a meeting. And the promise is that the deal is so good we can’t refuse.

BAKER: George, we ought to hear what he has to say.

DUBYA: No, no, no. No more. Not this time, counselor! No more meetings. No more discussions. No more Democratic tricks! You give ‘em one message: I want Florida. Or else it’s all out war and we go to the Supreme Court.

BAKER: George, the Democrats won’t stand for an all-out litigation!

DUBYA: Then they hand me Florida!

BAKER: Your father wouldn’t want to hear this! This is politics! Not personal, George!

DUBYA: They’re trying to steal this election - that’s politics?! Well then, politics will have to suffer ” And listen, do me a favor, Jim, huh? No more advice on how to patch things up! Just help me win, please! Awright?!

BAKER: I found out about this David Boies who filed all these lawsuits.

DUBYA: What about him?

BAKER: Now he’s definitely on Gore’s payroll, and for big money. Boies has agreed to be Gore’s lawyer. What you have to understand, George, is that while Gore is being represented like this, he is invulnerable. Now nobody has ever gone after a New York litigator - never. It would be disastrous. All the media and the political establishment would come after you, George. The Bush family would be outcasts! Even the old man’s political protection would run for cover! So do me a favor - take this into consideration.

ROVE: All right, we’ll wait.

DUBYA: We can’t wait. I don’t care what Gore says about a deal, he’s gonna steal this election, that’s it. That’s the key for him.

ROVE: George is right.

DUBYA: They wanna have a meeting with me, right? It will be me - Boies - and Gore. Let’s set the meeting. Get our informers to find out where it’s gonna be held. Now, we insist it’s a public place - a bar, a restaurant - some place where there’s people so I feel safe. They’re gonna search me when I first meet them, right, so I can’t have any papers on me then. But if Baker can figure a way to have a subpoena planted there for me - then I’ll sue ‘em both.

[FORMER PRESIDENT BUSH, JIM BAKER, KARL ROVE START LAUGHING]

BAKER: Hey, what’re ya gonna do, nice Yale boy, eh? Didn’t want to get mixed up in the family business, huh? Now you wanna sue a Vice President of the United States. Why? Because he’s trying to steal your presidency? Hah? What do you think this is - the Texas Air National Guard, where you go after ‘em from 100 miles away? Ya gotta get up close like this - and BADA-BING! They spit all over your nice Ivy League suit.

[CAMERA SHOT OF WASHINGTON, D.C., CLOSE-UP ON VICE PRESIDENT'S RESIDENCE - INSIDE, AL GORE AND PRESIDENT CLINTON ARE SITTING IN ARMCHAIRS, FACING EACH OTHER]

CLINTON: There’s a lot I can’t tell you, and I know that has upset you in the past.

GORE: Well, uh …

CLINTON: Yeah - you felt it was because of some lack of trust of confidence - but it’s ” it’s because I admire you and I love you that I kept things secret from you. That’s why at this moment you’re the only one I completely trust. Podesta? - Shucks, he’s got a good heart, but he’s weak, and he’s stupid, and this is politics. Al, you’re my brother.

GORE: I always wanted to be thought of as a brother by you, Billy - a real brother.

CLINTON: I know. You’re gonna take over. You’re gonna be the president. If what I think has happened has happened, I’m gonna leave here tonight. I give you complete power, Al - over Albright and her men, Daley, Reno, everyone. I am trusting you with the lives of all Americans - the future of this country.

GORE: If we catch these guys who might rig this thing, do you think we’ll be able to find out who’s backing them?

CLINTON: We’re not going to catch them. Unless I’m very wrong, it’s rigged already. It’s rigged by somebody close to us - inside, and they’re very, very scared they botched it.

GORE: What about your people - Cuomo and Shalala? You don’t think that they had something to do with this.

CLINTON: You see, all our people are politicians, their loyalty is based on that. Now, one thing that I learned from Ted Kennedy was to try to think as people around you think. Now on that basis, anything’s possible.

UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Yes, Mr. President.

[MAN EMERGES FROM SHADOW; HE BENDS AND KISSES CLINTON"S HAND]

[CLINTON AND GORE LEAVE THE ROOM; CAMERA ZOOMS IN ON MAN]

WARREN CHRISTOPHER: Just when I thought I was out … they pull me back IN!

[BACK IN TEXAS, THERE"S A KNOCK AT THE GOVERNOR"S DOOR. KAREN HUGHES ENTERS CARRYING A PACKAGE. SHE BRINGS IT OVER TO BUSH, WHO BEGINS TO OPEN IT. INSIDE THE PACKAGE IS A DEAD FISH WITH A DIMPLED BALLOT STUFFED INTO ITS MOUTH]

DUBYA: What the hell is this?!

BAKER: It’s a Tennessee message. It means your chance to become president sleeps with the fishes.

DUBYA: All right that’s it”. Karl, I want you to find out where that ol’ pimp William Daley is hiding. I want his ass now - right now!

ROVE: Hey, George. Things are startin” to loosen up a little bit. The recount isn’t goin” as well for Gore as he thought. If you go after Daley now, all hell is going to break loose. Let the smoke clear. Baker can negotiate.

DUBYA: No! Baker can’t do nothin”. I’m going to decide what’s going to be done”

ROVE: All right, but this is costing us a lot of time. We can’t begin the transition.

DUBYA: Well, neither can they!

ROVE: They don’t have as much work to do as we do!

DUBYA: Don’t worry about it! Please! Don’t worry about it!

ROVE: We can’t afford a stalemate!

DUBYA: Well, then there ain’t no more stalemate. I’m gonna end it by suing that old bastard!

ROVE: Yeah, well you’re getting a great reputation! I hope you’re enjoying it!

DUBYA: Well you just do what I tell you to do! Goddamn it! If I had a wartime campaign strategist - a Southerner - I wouldn’t be in this shape! Pop had Lee Atwater!!! Look what I got!!!

[DORO BUSH, DUBYA"S SISTER, ENTERS THE ROOM]

DORO: George, Jeb is in the house with mother. He asked for you and Karl said you wouldn’t see him.

DUYA: That’s right.

DORO [to Baker and Rove]: Gentlemen, why don’t you go outside for a while.

[THE ADVISERS DON"T MOVE]

DORO: George please ” I want to talk with you.

[DUBYA LOOKS AT BAKER AND ROVE. THEY PICK UP THEIR PAPERS AND LEAVE.]

DORO: George, can’t you forgive Jeb? He’s so sweet”and helpless without you”

[CUT TO: DUBYA ENTERS A ROOM WHERE JEB BUSH IS SLUMPED DEJECTEDLY IN A CHAIR]

JEB [not looking at his older brother]: I haven’t got a lot to say, George.

DUBYA: We have time.

JEB: I was kept pretty much in the dark. I didn’t know all that much. I didn’t know it was gonna be stolen election, George - I swear to God I didn’t know they were going to try and steal the election.

DUBYA: Jeb. You’re my brother and I love you. Only don’t tell me you’re innocent. Because it insults my intelligence. And it makes me very angry. Now who approached you? Daley or Lieberman?

JEB: It was Lieberman. He bumped into me in Tallahassee - and he said that there was something in it for me if I’d help ‘em out. Like maybe I could be a part of the Gore administration and that he’d only serve one term and then I could run for president in 2004. He said that you couldn’t win the election and that if I helped them it would be good for the family.

DUBYA: You believed that story. You believed that.

JEB: He said there was something in it for me - on my own.

DUBYA: I’ve always taken care of you, Jeb.

JEB: Taken care of me! You’re the dumber brother and you take care of me?! Did you ever think about that? Did you ever once think about that?! Send Jeb off to do this ” Send Jeb off to do that! Let Jeb to take care of some Mickey Mouse state like Florida! Send Jeb to pick somebody up at the airport! I was the smarter brother, George and I was stepped over!

DUBYA: That’s the way Pop wanted it.

JEB: IT AIN”T THE WAY I WANTED IT! I can handle things! I’m smart! Not politically dumb like everybody says! I’m SMART! And I want respect!

DUBYA: Jeb”You’re nothing to me now. You’re not a brother. You’re not a friend. I don’t want to see you at Kennebunkport. I don’t want you near the White House. When you see our parents, I want to know a day in advance, so I won’t be there - you understand.

JEB [despairingly]: Georgie”

[DUBYA LEAVES THE ROOM AND APPROACHES KARL ROVE]

DUBYA: I don’t want anything to happen to him while my parents are alive.

[ROVE EMBRACES DUBYA AND KISSES HIS HAND. JIM BAKER DOES THE SAME]

BAKER: President Bush.

[FADE TO BLACK]

THIS FILM HAS NOT YET BEEN RATED.

Steven Harras is a legal reporter and Nicholas Morehead is reporting for Wired News. Both are based in Washington, D.C.

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