New York Post-June 22, 2000
ENERGY CHIEF MUST ENVY HIS �TEFLON' BOSS
By DEBORAH ORIN
POOR Bill Richardson. Here we are in the Clinton era when you can
usually wiggle out of just about anything - sex, lies or
videotape - by claiming the dog ate your homework. Or blaming a
"vast right-wing conspiracy."
But excuses and buck-passing aren't working for the hapless
energy secretary. His star has fallen like a fading dot-com
company as he gets blamed for lost nuclear secrets and
skyrocketing gas prices.
He was on Al Gore's veep list. Now he may have to walk the plank
as a human sacrifice after the Senate's senior Democrat - not
Republican - Robert Byrd (W.Va.) told Richardson he'd lost "any
faith in what you say."
"What's going on here?
"People have allowed the permissiveness, laxity and excuses of
the Clinton era because they didn't see consequences - this shows
it has consequences," says a Democratic strategist.
"It frames a way to go at what gnaws at people about the Clinton
era. It's not about sex, it's about nuclear secrets. It's a
metaphor for George W. Bush to talk about those issues without
ever talking about sex and morals."
Republican pollster John MacLaughlin says President Clinton has
always been able to get out of Monicagate and other scrapes by
appealing to people's empathy, but that won't work here.
"There's no empathy about losing nuclear secrets," MacLaughlin
says. "Clinton likes to say, �Yes, I did it, but ...' - but
there's no middle ground here. Either you lost nuclear secrets or
you didn't."
Clearly this whole mess isn't helping Gore (or his
again-reinvented campaign) in the polls where he now trails Bush
by about 10 points nationally.
*
It's also noteworthy that Richardson is the guy taking the heat
here - the radioactive buck landed on his desk, not Clinton's.
But Republicans, who don't much care about the lame-duck
president these days anyway, are out to make sure Gore shares the
blame with Richardson, his wannabe veep.
The GOP is busy documenting all the debates and fund-raisers
where Richardson found the time to appear to boost Gore - time he
took out of his real taxpayer-paid job of minding the nuclear
store and gas prices.
*
Latest Gore-land rumor says the veep wants his own veep to be a
senior statesman type and the top prospects are ex-Sen. George
Mitchell (of Ireland peace-process fame) and Defense Secretary
William Cohen.
One big problem with Mitchell: He made big bucks as a lawyer for
Big Tobacco. Not such a cool idea for the supposedly anti-smoking
Gore who already has Big Tobacco image-maker Carter Eskew as his
image-man.
Cohen, a Republican, says he wants to go back to the private
sector. He also poses the question of how the country would react
to a man with a Jewish name on a national ticket (Cohen is
Unitarian but his dad was a Russian Jew).
Rumors say Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh also is high on Gore's veep
list but the latest poll has Bush up by 21 points in Dan Quayle's
home state, suggesting Gore can't win there even with a Hoosier
running mate.
*
Nothing worries Dems more than California, the state Gore
absolutely must win, and conflicting polls there have them
flummoxed. One poll this week had Gore up by 11 points, another
by just 3, a virtual tie.
Private polls put Gore ahead by about 5 statewide but a Dem
strategist says the real worry is that he leads only around Los
Angeles and San Francisco. The rest of the state, which is more
like Middle America, is all Bush-land.
All of which might suggest that Gore's best veep bet is
California Gov. Gray Davis - if he'd accept.
*
Republicans say they weren't just having fun when they included
Arkansas in their first round of national ads - they insist
private polls show Gore is in trouble in Clinton's home state.
Actually that shouldn't come as a surprise. Gore isn't a shoo-in
in his next-door home state of Tennessee either.
*
Bad news for right-winger Pat Buchanan and liberal Ralph Nader.
The Commission on Presidential Debates says you have to be at 15
percent in polls to get in. That means neither would make the
cut.
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
=================================================================
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