http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/houseed2-20000229.htm
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
EDITORIAL • February 29, 2000
Al Gore's problem with
the truth
Visit our Election 2000 page
for daily election news and analysis
It may seem that Vice President Gore has taken
the clue from his boss when it comes to finessing the
truth. However, the fact is that Mr. Gore was lying
long before he ever teamed up with Bill Clinton.
Indeed, during Mr. Gore's ill-fated 1987-1988
pursuit of the Democratic presidential nomination, his
own staffers twice admonished him in writing to tell
the truth now that the national media was following
his words. His press secretary told Mr. Gore his
image "may continue to suffer if you continue to go
out on a limb with remarks that may be impossible to
back up." Later, his communications director told
Mr. Gore in a memo, "Your main pitfall is
exaggeration."
Mr. Gore fibbed when he told the Des Moines
Register that his stint as an investigative reporter at
the Nashville Tennessean "got a bunch of people
indicted and sent to jail." In fact, as the newspaper
acknowledged, nobody went to jail. For years Mr.
Gore greatly exaggerated the danger he faced in
Vietnam, where bodyguards were assigned to
protect him. He lied when he claimed that Harvard
professor Erich Segal used him and Tipper as the
models for "Love Story." And Mr. Gore, of course,
lied when he asserted that, as a congressman, he
"took the initiative in creating the Internet." In fact,
the Internet was created years before Mr. Gore
entered Congress. Mr. Gore lied when he claimed to
be a co-sponsor of the McCain-Feingold
campaign-finance reform bill. As it happens, Mr.
Feingold wasn't even in the Senate when Mr. Gore
represented Tennessee there. Mr. Gore lied when he
said it was he who "found a little place in upstate
New York called Love Canal" and "had the first
hearing on that issue . . . that started it all." In fact,
President Carter had declared Love Canal a disaster
area months before Mr. Gore's hearing. "I live on a
farm today," Mr. Gore tells people, when, in fact, he
resides at the Naval Observatory. Mr. Gore has
repeatedly lied about his evolving position on
abortion.
Mr. Gore doesn't just lie to reporters or during
debates. During his 1996 speech before the
Democratic National Convention, Mr. Gore brazenly
lied to a national audience about the impact the 1984
smoking-related death of his younger sister had upon
him. "That is why until I draw my last breath I will
pour my heart and soul into the cause of protecting
our children from the dangers of smoking," Mr. Gore
declared, conveniently forgetting that the Gore family
continued to grow tobacco on the family farm for
years after his sister's death and for decades after the
surgeon general's 1964 warning about smoking.
Indeed, Mr. Gore accepted thousands of dollars
from tobacco political action committees after his
sister died, and in 1988 he bragged to North
Carolina tobacco farmers about his wonderful
experience farming tobacco.
The man who introduced "no controlling legal
authority" into the political lexicon has not shied away
from lying about his role in the 1996
campaign-finance scandal. Mr. Gore's office insisted
the political shakedown at the California Buddhist
temple in 1996 was not a fund-raiser but merely
"community outreach." Later, as evidence mounted,
the afternoon was described as "political outreach."
Still later, it was a "finance-related event." Mr. Gore
also apparently lied when he said he did not know
that the money he raised from his White House
telephone calls was divided into both hard- and
soft-money accounts. Memos and notes later
surfaced contradicting Mr. Gore.
"Why should we believe that you will tell the truth
as president if you don't tell the truth as a candidate?"
Bill Bradley asked Mr. Gore at the Jan. 26 debate
between the two. The best thing that can be said
about Mr. Gore's refusal to answer Mr. Bradley's
highly pertinent question is that he has not added still
more lies to his mountain of mendacity. [/quote]
------------------
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
EDITORIAL • February 29, 2000
Al Gore's problem with
the truth
Visit our Election 2000 page
for daily election news and analysis
It may seem that Vice President Gore has taken
the clue from his boss when it comes to finessing the
truth. However, the fact is that Mr. Gore was lying
long before he ever teamed up with Bill Clinton.
Indeed, during Mr. Gore's ill-fated 1987-1988
pursuit of the Democratic presidential nomination, his
own staffers twice admonished him in writing to tell
the truth now that the national media was following
his words. His press secretary told Mr. Gore his
image "may continue to suffer if you continue to go
out on a limb with remarks that may be impossible to
back up." Later, his communications director told
Mr. Gore in a memo, "Your main pitfall is
exaggeration."
Mr. Gore fibbed when he told the Des Moines
Register that his stint as an investigative reporter at
the Nashville Tennessean "got a bunch of people
indicted and sent to jail." In fact, as the newspaper
acknowledged, nobody went to jail. For years Mr.
Gore greatly exaggerated the danger he faced in
Vietnam, where bodyguards were assigned to
protect him. He lied when he claimed that Harvard
professor Erich Segal used him and Tipper as the
models for "Love Story." And Mr. Gore, of course,
lied when he asserted that, as a congressman, he
"took the initiative in creating the Internet." In fact,
the Internet was created years before Mr. Gore
entered Congress. Mr. Gore lied when he claimed to
be a co-sponsor of the McCain-Feingold
campaign-finance reform bill. As it happens, Mr.
Feingold wasn't even in the Senate when Mr. Gore
represented Tennessee there. Mr. Gore lied when he
said it was he who "found a little place in upstate
New York called Love Canal" and "had the first
hearing on that issue . . . that started it all." In fact,
President Carter had declared Love Canal a disaster
area months before Mr. Gore's hearing. "I live on a
farm today," Mr. Gore tells people, when, in fact, he
resides at the Naval Observatory. Mr. Gore has
repeatedly lied about his evolving position on
abortion.
Mr. Gore doesn't just lie to reporters or during
debates. During his 1996 speech before the
Democratic National Convention, Mr. Gore brazenly
lied to a national audience about the impact the 1984
smoking-related death of his younger sister had upon
him. "That is why until I draw my last breath I will
pour my heart and soul into the cause of protecting
our children from the dangers of smoking," Mr. Gore
declared, conveniently forgetting that the Gore family
continued to grow tobacco on the family farm for
years after his sister's death and for decades after the
surgeon general's 1964 warning about smoking.
Indeed, Mr. Gore accepted thousands of dollars
from tobacco political action committees after his
sister died, and in 1988 he bragged to North
Carolina tobacco farmers about his wonderful
experience farming tobacco.
The man who introduced "no controlling legal
authority" into the political lexicon has not shied away
from lying about his role in the 1996
campaign-finance scandal. Mr. Gore's office insisted
the political shakedown at the California Buddhist
temple in 1996 was not a fund-raiser but merely
"community outreach." Later, as evidence mounted,
the afternoon was described as "political outreach."
Still later, it was a "finance-related event." Mr. Gore
also apparently lied when he said he did not know
that the money he raised from his White House
telephone calls was divided into both hard- and
soft-money accounts. Memos and notes later
surfaced contradicting Mr. Gore.
"Why should we believe that you will tell the truth
as president if you don't tell the truth as a candidate?"
Bill Bradley asked Mr. Gore at the Jan. 26 debate
between the two. The best thing that can be said
about Mr. Gore's refusal to answer Mr. Bradley's
highly pertinent question is that he has not added still
more lies to his mountain of mendacity. [/quote]
------------------
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!