The most bizarre Florida moment of the past month came courtesy of Matthew Staver, a lawyer who intervened on behalf of Seminole County absentee voters against the unsuccessful suit brought by a Gore loyalist to throw out the absentee votes cast in that county. As part of his closing argument, Staver read a personal appeal from one of the voters who would have been disenfranchised if the county's absentee votes had been disqualified. His purpose, presumably, was to tug at the heartstrings of observers and help persuade Judge Nikki Clark not to exclude any of the absentee votes. So he read parts of an affidavit from one Helga Powell, a Seminole County resident, absentee voter, registered Republican, and . . . oh yeah, she's also a former member of Hitler Youth.
"I was born in Nuremberg, Germany, during World War II and under the Nazi dictatorship," her affidavit began. (At that point, we thought Staver was a Republican Alan Dershowitz and had found a Holocaust survivor whose vote would be thrown out if the Democrats got their way. But no.) "I was a member of the Hitler Youth," Powell continued, "because it was required to attend school, and during those times, we could not protest any form of governmental action." Mrs. Powell (who we'll stipulate may well be a great American) went on to sing the praises of the "right to vote," and to explain that she holds that right "so dearly" she "cannot remain silent."
Call us perfectionists, but it occurs to us that a lawyer with a keener sense of public relations might have encouraged Mrs. Powell to create a web page as the avenue for her protest, rather than read her affidavit aloud in court. We cling to the hope that this will turn out to have been an exceptionally devious Democratic dirty trick.