Jake Tapper

Though known for his prodigious output, Salon.com political reporter Jake Tapper didn’t know what he was getting into when he agreed to write a book on the mishegoss in Florida after the 2000 presidential election on a very tight deadline. But the effort paid off; Down and Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency (Little, Brown, $24.95) was released earlier this month. Tapper, a Queen Village native, will appear at Barnes and Noble, 1805 Walnut St., on April 26 at 7 p.m.

How the hell did you write this so fast?

I had absolutely no life from November until mid-March. None. Zero. Would wake up, chug two cups of coffee, and just begin interviewing, transcribing, writing, researching. Then around 4 o’clock I’d realize I had to have some sort of lunch. At around 10 o’clock I’d realize I’d have to have some sort of dinner, and then I’d just repeat the same process all over again. I will never do it again, ever. But that’s how I did it. I mean, I gained weight.… I’ve had happier eras of my life.

Forgive this question, but we have to ask: Do you think many people still care about the election?

Yeah, I do, because I think a lot of people still don’t quite understand how any of it happened. Obviously I hope they do, so people will buy it. But I have to say, as somebody who covered it in Florida, who was in Florida for most of the 36 days, I don’t think that I really understood it all until I went back and started talking to all these people who were unavailable for interviews while it was going on. So, hopefully.

Examination of the mainstream media’s handling of all this focused on election night itself. But what other failings did we miss by dwelling on that?

Yeah, there were a ton of mistakes. Nobody went into Florida and came out looking good, and that includes very much the American media, TV and newspapers. And I have to say, without naming names, there have been other accounts of the Florida recount that have been published that describe one of the ugliest events in American political history in such a way as to not offend anyone who was involved in the events at all. And that’s a major shortcoming of mainstream media. To be so worried about losing sources that you’re willing to do a disservice to your readers or viewers is a travesty. And then there were smaller mistakes here and there that I detail in the book: Brit Hume or Jonathan Alter revealing what appeared to be political biases on air; the Chicago Tribune totally whiffing on a story about a very important Illinois Supreme Court case, and then becoming part of the story itself, while never once acknowledging it or really ever getting the story right. So yeah, there were a ton of things other than election night. Obviously election night was the worst, but it went on from there. And, I’d like to point out, it continues. Fox News is still defending the fact that George W. Bush’s first cousin was on the desk that made the decision to give him Florida. And on the other side of the coin you have NBC refusing to give my book any publicity because they have a deal with the Washington Post, and the Washington Post has a competing book. That’s fairly corrupt. I mean, there’s news in the book, and they’re not reporting it or willing to talk about it, even on MSNBC because — we’ve been told this point-blank — because they have a deal with the Washington Post. That’s synergy, I guess, but it’s also pretty corrupt.

Is there anything in the book that you are most proud of bringing to light?

I’m not sure how significant it seems right now, but I trust that it will — the fact that I reported on this conference call that Bush political operatives had in which they discussed getting soldiers to vote [by absentee ballot] after the election. It’s a pretty big deal that they talked about it, and there sure is a lot of circumstantial evidence that makes it appear that they actually went through with it — thousands of military votes that showed up oddly late. And then, I think, on the flip side, just the fact that I detailed so explicitly how little it meant when Al Gore said count every vote, how he never actually meant that. I think that’s one of the reasons that some left-leaning book critics haven’t been so delighted.

The title of the book could give the impression that it’s an indictment of the Republicans, but in fact you’re pretty hard on the Democrats as well. Are there any good guys in this story?

Yeah, there are. I’ve heard back from some of the people I thought were doing the best in trying circumstances. A lot of them were Floridians who were caught between a rock and a hard place. Judge [Charles] Burton, in Palm Beach County, who was decried and derided by both Republicans and Democrats throughout the process — much in the same way this book is being slammed from both sides. He’s somebody whom I think did the best in very difficult circumstances. There are others, too. I think the lawyers generally are portrayed as mercenaries doing their work but not necessarily with such a value judgment going on. But look, I mean it was really ugly down there, and if you want a sanitized version that makes everybody look okay and guarantees that nobody’s going to be mad at the reporter writing it, then there are other books. But if you want to know what really happened, this is the one.

What’s next on your agenda?

I need to see a movie. I need to go to the beach. I need to get a life.

—Frank Lewis