In short, a big fat Southern-fried no.

Sauls, in his North Florida drawl, glasses perched on the edge of his nose, tells the court, "It's not enough to show a reasonable possibility" that the outcome of the election would have been different because of illegal votes counted or legal votes not counted. "Rather" -- ra-thuh -- "you have to show a reasonable probability. In this case, there is no credible statistical evidence" presented to the court that shows such a case to be true.

The Gore legal team, Sauls says, didn't "establish any illegality, dishonesty, gross negligence, improper influence, coercion or fraud in the balloting and counting process."

One by one, Sauls goes down the Gore claims and crosses them off the list of arguments he was willing to buy. They didn't show that Miami-Dade's votes from its partial hand recount should be included in the full result. They didn't show that the Miami-Dade, Palm Beach or Nassau County Canvassing Board abused its discretion.

"The plaintiffs failed to carry the requisite burden of proof," Sauls says. He declares the matter over, notes that the hundreds of thousands of ballots that had been shipped to Tallahassee via Ryder truck would remain in court custody pending an appeal and leaves the room.

The Gore lawyers -- lead David Boies, genteel Southern gentlemen Dexter Douglass and Deeno Kitchen and Miami trial lawyer Stephen Zack among them -- politely cross the room and congratulate the victors who so ably represented Gov. George W. Bush: Tallahassee attorney and former Democratic legislator Barry Richard; Chicago Kevin Spacey-clone Phillip Beck; Irv Terrell from former Secretary of State Jim Baker's Houston law firm; Fred Bartlit from Colorado; and Republican National Committee counsel Ben Ginsberg.

Boies walks out of the room with a big grin plastered on his face, oddly Gore-like.

When are you going to appeal? He is asked.

"Right now," he says.

Douglass is asked the same question.

"It's probably being done as we speak," he says. Actually, it was before.

Cameras and boom mikes surrounding them like piranhas, the Gore team turns left, to a holding room near the circuit court judge's chambers, while the Bush team turns right, to the court administrator's office.

In the Bush room, there's a huddle among the 12 lawyers, according to an account by spokesman Tucker Eskew. "A round of bear hugs and back-slapping," he says. "In the Bush way, we quickly recognized that we need to be both grateful and humble."

"The bear hugs were heartier than usual, the backslaps were heartier than on most days and the weary grins were well-earned," Eskew says.

Salon News A Salon-eye view of the day's news, with investigative reports, analysis and interviews with newsmakers.