glc,
Thank you, Your Honor, for agreeing to "hold the money" for us. I suppose I should have anticipated some hair-splitting over details, but since I so rarely do that myself, I did not. Maybe I should have had LawyerRon draw it up. At any rate, thanks for seeking clarification.
My proposal is that the Florida votes will not be among those opened and counted by the new Congress. December 18th is the mandated date, but just in case troysvihl might try to get an injunction to delay it one day, let's refer to it as "whenever they vote".
BTW, The way I'm reading the 12th A, the new Congress would choose the President only if any candidate does not have a majority of the votes that were cast by however many Electors showed up to cast their votes. This year, Gore would win since he currently leads in the EC. Bush may regret having taken this to court; the Federal Appeals Court will be doing him a favor when they toss him out of the courtroom tomorrow with only an admonishment for bringing frivolous lawsuits.
From what I've read, the Florida Supreme Court and state law strongly favor remedies that allow the will of the people to be known. If that happens, and Florida goes to Gore, I'll be paying off the bets with a smile on my face.
As I prepared to post this I was listening to Katherine Harris, Bush's campaign manager, denying the Counties their re-count. The last desperate attempt to stop an accurate count and give it to Bush. James Baker looks frantic to me.