-Caveat Lector-
And then, Grandpa Gore Discorvered Alaska....
By Alexander Cockburn
LATimes
Nothing has been more comical than Al Gore's "populist" posturing
about the Republicans being the ticket of Big Oil and himself and
Joseph Lieberman being the champions of the little people.
This is the man whose education and Tennessee homestead came to
him in part via the patronage of Armand Hammer, one of the great
oil bandits of the 20th century, in whose Occidental Petroleum
the Gore family still has investments valued between $500,000 and
$1 million.
At the Los Angeles convention, the headquarters of the Democratic
National Committee were on the 42nd floor of the Arco building
and the symbolism was apt. In 1992, Arco loaned the Clinton-Gore
inaugural committee $100,000. In the 1993-94 election cycle, it
gave the DNC $274,000. In the 1995-96 cycle it ponied up
$496,000, and has kept up the same tempo ever since.
Was there a quid pro quo? You bet there was. Early in
Clinton-time, the president overturned a long-standing ban on the
export of Alaskan crude oil. Why that ban? When Congress Okd
the building of the trans-Alaska pipeline in the 1970s, the
legislation triumphed by a single vote and only after solemn
pledges were made that the North Slope oil would always be
reserved for domestic markets, available to hold prices down.
Congress had on its mind precisely such emergencies as this
year's hike in prices and consequent suffering of poor people
trembling with cold for the lack of cheap heating oil.
With the help of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and Energy
Secretary Hazel O'leary, Arco was also, at the start of the Bill
Clinton era in the process of building refineries in China.
Hence, Clinton's overturn of the export ban was an immense boon
to the company, whose then chairman, Lodwrick M. Cook, was given
a White House birthday party in June 1994. The birthday presents
have continued ever since to the favorite oil company of the
Clinton-Gore era.
When the Democrats and mainstream Greens fulminate about
Republicans' threat to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,
nary a word has been mentioned about one of the biggest giveaways
in the nations history, the opening the 24-million acre National
Petroleum Resave - Alaska, which is untapped, publicly owned oil
reserves, not to be confused with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve
in Louisiana and Texas. Back at the start of the 1990's Arco's
Prudhoe Bay reserves on Alaska's North Slope were dwindling.
Nor Arco will be foremost among the oil companies exploiting a
potential $36 billion worth of crude oil available from the
Alaskan reserve.
The fake populism about Big Oil is part and parcel of a larger
mendacity that troubles many about Gore. What suppressed psychic
tumult drives him to those pathetic stretches that litter his
career, the lies large and small about his live and achievements?
You'd think that a man exposed to as much public derision as was
Gore after claiming that he and Tipper were the models for the
couple in "Love Story," or after saying he invented the internet
would be by now more prudent in his vauntings. But no. Just as
a kleptomaniac's fingers inevitably stray toward the merchandise,
so too does Gore persists in his fabrications.
In recent weeks, Gore has claimed to have been at the center when
the strategic petroleum reserve was established. IN fact the
reserves tanks were actually filling with oil in 1997 when Gore
was barely in Congress, a very junior member of the relevant
committee. The legislation creating the reserve was already in
place. The vice president also claimed to have heard his mother
crooning "Look for the Union Label" over his cradle. It rapidly
emerged that this little jingle had been made up by an ad man in
the 1970s, when Gore was in his late 20's.
As a clue to why Gore misremembers and exaggerates, the lullaby
story is a sad little essay on wish fulfillment. Gore's mother,
Pauline, was always a tough character, far more interested in
advancing Albert Sr.'s career than in warbling over Jr.'s cot.
Both parents were demanding. Gore is brittle, often the mark of
the overly well-behaved, perfect child. Who can forget the
panicked performance when his image of moral rectitude was
shattered at the impact of the fund-raising scandals associated
with the Buddhist temple in Hacienda Heights.
"He was an easy child, he always wanted to please us," Pauline
Gore once said of her son. The child's desire to please, to get
the attention of often-absent parents, probably is what sparked
Gore's penchant for tall tails about himself. The tall tales now
meld with the political fakery inherent in a career neoliberal
pretending to be a populist. But people mistrust a clumsy faker.
George W. Bush must be praying for Gore to fire off a few more
specious boasts.
Alexander Cockburn is co-author, with Jeffery St. Clair of "Al
Gore: A user's Manual," just published by Verso.
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