-Caveat Lector-
(This article by Keith Woodard sets the record straight. Many thanks to
Keith for this information. Please post far and wide.--SW)
Al Gore - Problem with the Truth?
by Keith Woodard
(Footnotes in Brackets)
A recent MSNBC website article casts the Al-Gore-is-a-liar storyline
as a myth kept afloat by the mainstream media. "What the case
represents," wrote David Neiwert, "is actually a breakdown in basic
standards of journalism -- simple factual accuracy -- on a massive
scale." [1]
The Manchester Guardian has called the American media's treatment of
Gore "professional deformation," noting that "the old standards of
checking have lapsed." [2]
Deserved or not, Gore's reputation has recently brought his claims,
even those from decades ago, under intense scrutiny. As with Bush and
other politicians, the list expands when campaign literature is
included, but false statements have been made by Gore himself
regarding:
* His marijuana use.
* His relationship to the tobacco industry.
* Campaigning more in the South than his combined rivals.
* Having been a "hands-on homebuilder."
* Having been a reporter for seven years.
* Half his campaign staff being women.
At least four claims have been confirmed as exaggerations:
* That as a reporter for the Nashville Tennessean, he "got a bunch of
people indicted and sent to jail." (Two councilmen were indicted, one
convicted with a suspended sentence. The Tennessean reported that
Gore did "play a key role in orchestrating a police sting that led to
the indictment.") [3]
* That he co-sponsored of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill.
(He co-sponsored numerous campaign-reform bills while in Congress and
supported McCain-Feingold as vice president.)
* That his sister was the Peace Corps' "very first volunteer." (She
volunteered briefly before drawing salary at their Washington
headquarters, and may have been one of the first Peace Corps
"volunteers" -- but only in that unusual sense.) [4]
No Bodyguard in Vietnam
The fourth subject of exaggeration is Vietnam. At various times, Gore
has been quoted as saying, "I took my turn regularly on the perimeter
in these little firebases out in the boonies. Something would move,
we'd fire first and ask questions later." "I was shot at. I spent
most of my time in the field." "I pulled my turn on the perimeter at
night and walked through the elephant grass and I was fired upon."
Gore did pull guard duty, but not at firebases in the boonies. [5]
He carried an M-16, although it's not clear he actually fired it.
Erroneous reports that he was protected by a "bodyguard" are traceable
to Spec-5 Alan Leo's claim that the commanding officer asked him to
steer Gore away from insecure areas. "Yet there is no evidence,"
Melinda Henneberger wrote in the New York Times, "that Mr. Gore sought
special treatment, or that the extra notice he got anyway provided any
real protection. On the contrary, as an Army journalist, Mr. Gore
probably assumed more risk than he had to, choppering around South
Vietnam interviewing soldiers who had just seen action." Leo also
told Henneberger, "that he had resented Mr. Gore before he ever met
him, and changed his routine only slightly. 'I think he did have the
bug, and actually wanted to go in the field,' Mr. Leo said. 'There was
occasional sniper fire when I was with him, and he took his chances
like the rest of us. I guess I still had that animosity that he
probably never had a hard day in his life, but when other guys would
go to the houses of ill repute, he would stay faithful to his wife and
I never saw him treat anyone with disrespect. He wasn't my
slap-on-the-back buddy, but he earned my respect. There were some
values there.'" [6]
Leo told Gore biographer Bill Turque that he doesn't think Gore was
ever aware of the commanding officer's request. [7] And Henneberger
wrote that "Several other soldiers who knew both Mr. Gore and Mr. Leo
in Vietnam said they liked Mr. Leo but either did not believe him or
thought he must have taken a comment like 'Watch his back' a little
too literally." [8]
Jacob Weisberg has observed, "whether or not the conversation
occurred, Gore clearly was not specially protected for much of the
time he was in Vietnam. Journalists in the 20th Engineer Brigade would
often go into the field in pairs on reporting assignments that were in
practice largely voluntary. Gore went on many such trips....And often
he went not with Leo but with other writers and photographers assigned
to the brigade. Leo says he has no reason to believe these other
journalists got the request he did to keep Gore out of
danger....O'Hara explained to him that he would have to choose between
hanging around the base in Bien Hoa in relative safety or venturing
out into the field to report on stories.... Gore's decision was to go
and see the war for himself, often in O'Hara's company....But they
clearly did expose Gore to hazards he wouldn't have faced had he
stayed back at the base writing up press releases. Riding on
helicopters, sleeping in foxholes within range of North Vietnamese
artillery." [9]
Turque recounts an incident where Gore volunteered for duty at an
airstrip that did take some incoming fire. "William
Smith....recalls....when a sergeant asked him to go to Khe Sanh...to
cover the engineers' role in reopening an abandoned airstrip. When
Smith said he was scheduled to leave for R&R in Hawaii, the sergeant
called for volunteers. Gore stepped up and spent a cold night in a
foxhole. 'Al did what everybody else did,' said Mike O'Hara, the
photographer who shot the Khe Sanh assignment. Although the fire at
the airstrip was nearly all outgoing, Gore took no chances,
reinforcing the tarmac covering the foxhole with metal sheets." [10]
Although some of Gore's early Vietnam descriptions were exaggerated,
the "bodyguard" stories are untrue. Gore put himself at risk and
earned the respect of his peers. Moreover, he could have avoided
Vietnam altogether, since the National Guard, George W. Bush's
selection, was available to Gore as well. [11]
Memory Not Perfect
As with Bush, some technically false Gore statements can be attributed
to imperfect memory. Where Gore claimed a 1996 Texas visit with FEMA
Director James Witt, campaign staffers confirmed a 1998 visit with
FEMA regional director Buddy Young -- easily confused with the
eighteen trips Gore took with Witt. [12]
In their first debate, Gore denied questioning Bush's experience. The
three brief instances that have surfaced where he did question it --
all roughly six months before the debate -- were not necessarily
instantly recallable under pressure. [13, 14, 15]
Some statements depend on interpretation. That Gore's union lullaby
was a joke ("nobody sings a lullaby to a baby about the union label")
is supported by videotape of his teamster audience roaring with
laughter. His reason for thinking his ideas were used in Hubert
Humphrey's 1968 speech is believable assuming the personality of
presidential candidates can include some grandiosity. [16]
The Breakdown
However, most of Gore's supposed "problems with the truth" do seem
traceable to a "breakdown in basic standards of journalism":
Alleged Gore fib: That he claimed "to have been schooled in rural
Tennessee and urban Washington, when he was educated at an elite
private school in the capital." [17]
Analysis: This misrepresents Gore's statement. What Gore actually
claimed was true -- that he knew firsthand about the "disparity
between rural and urban education...because he'd attended schools in
rural Tennessee and Washington, D.C." [18] Bob Somerby writes, "But
MacPherson doesn't record Gore saying that he went to school in 'urban
Washington;' and the entire point of Gore's remark was that he had
received advantages at his Washington school that rural kids weren't
receiving. The whole thrust of Gore's remark -- which seems to be
entirely factual -- is reversed in the Globe's current retelling."
[19]
Alleged Gore fib: "'I found a little place in upstate New York called
Love Canal. I had the first hearing on that issue'....Gore said his
efforts made a lasting impact. 'I was the one that started it all.'"
[20]
Analysis: Once the Washington Post and the New York Times published
the identical misquotation, "I was the one that started it all," this
one was hard to stop. But a high school class produced a tape showing
Gore was actually giving more credit to the teenage girl who brought
the Toone, Tennessee case to his attention than he was to himself.
After telling her story, he said, "I called for a congressional
investigation and a hearing. I looked around the country for other
sites like that. I found a little place in upstate New York called
Love Canal. Had the first hearing on that issue and Toone, Tennessee -
that was the one you didn't hear of - but that was the one that
started it all....And it all happened because one high school student
got involved." [21] Some insist Gore meant by "found" that he was the
first to discover Love Canal. But cases can be found for a hearing
that were originally discovered by others.
Alleged Gore lie: His mother-in-law and his dog take the same
arthritis medicine, Lodine, but his mother-in-law pays $108 a month
compared to only $37.50 for Shiloh.
Analysis: It would not be surprising if both took the same drug,
although Gore's staffers never did provide documentary evidence. The
Boston Globe's objection was that, "The Gore campaign admitted that it
lifted those costs not from his family's bills, but from a House
Democratic study, and that Gore misused even those numbers." However,
Gore gained nothing by confusing the numbers, and may not have said
his information came from his mother-in-law. Having seen the study,
he could have assumed it applied to her. The Globe also noted, "Those
facts aside, Gore's overall message was accurate - that many
brand-name drugs that have both human and animal applications are much
more expensive for people than for pets." [22]
Alleged Gore fib: His father was such an unwavering supporter of civil
rights that it cost him his Senate seat.
Analysis: According to the Washington Post, the elder Gore's
opposition to segregation "angered many of his constituents and
eventually led to his political demise. With one notable exception,
when he capitulated to regional sentiment and opposed the 1964 Civil
Rights Act, the choices he made over more than three decades in
Washington were courageous....As Sen. Gore became more outspoken on
issues of race and peace over the next six years, his standing in
Tennessee deteriorated, his liberal positions were portrayed as
contrary to the state's values, and he was defeated in the 1970
election."
Of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, "Memphian Benjamin Hooks, later
executive director of the NAACP, said the vote was regrettable but
'understandable' as a means of survival...When Al Gore retraced that
same path years later in his own campaigns, he discovered that the
Gore name had an unforgettable resonance in the black community,
thanks to his father." [23]
Alleged Gore fib: His claim that he was "the only farmer" in the 1988
race.
Analysis: Gore still owns the farm he bought from his father in the
seventies, although he doesn't work it himself. His boyhood claims to
"plowing a steep hillside with a team of mules" and "clearing three
acres of heavily-wooded forest with a double-bladed axe," though
widely cited as "whoppers," have actually been confirmed. [24]
Alleged Gore fib: His uncle was gassed in WW II
Analysis: A 1959 newspaper obituary for Gore's uncle corroborates
this. [25]
Alleged Gore fib: He was the author of the Earned Income Tax Credit
(EITC) legislation.
Analysis: This is a misinterpretation of Gore's accurate statement to
Time magazine that he was the author (actually the co-author) of the
proposal to expand the EITC. [26]
Alleged Gore fib: That he has always supported Roe v. Wade, i.e. a
woman's right to choose.
Analysis: Gore is telling the truth. What has changed is that he no
longer opposes federal funding for abortion. [27]
Alleged Gore fib: he didn't know the Buddhist Temple event was a
fundraiser.
Analysis: A comprehensive treatment in The American Lawyer dispels
much mythology and appears to vindicate Gore. First, monks at this
temple do not take vows of poverty. And, though candidates can
legally hold fundraisers at temples, in this case they did not.
Fundraisers and community outreach events are both finance-related,
but no fundraising took place that day at the temple -- there were no
tickets, campaign materials or solicitation tables. Early memos
allude to a Los Angeles fundraiser that day, but it was a separate
event eventually cancelled. Janet Reno did not "overrule" most of her
advisers in dismissing the case. There is no evidence Gore or any
upper-level campaign staffers knew of Maria Hsia's illegal activities
the day after the event. (In Gore's otherwise puzzling January 1997
remark, "I did not know that it was a fundraiser," the term
"fundraiser" presumably refers to these conduit contributions of
Hsia's.) Senator Fred Thompson's Committee on Government Affairs
uncovered no evidence of a campaign deal between the administration
and China. [28]
Alleged Gore fib: There is "no controlling authority" covering his
white house phone calls.
Analysis: John B. Judis, fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International
Center for Scholars and New Republic senior editor, tells us, "[T]he
[1883] Pendleton Act was not meant to bar federal officials from
telephone solicitations aimed at private individuals. There were no
telephones in the White House then. The act was directed toward
federal employees asking for money on federal premises from
subordinate employees who might fear for their jobs. Thus...Gore...got
it right when he said there was 'no controlling legal authority'....
Senator Fred Thompson's Committee...acknowledged that the statute
didn't apply to Gore's fundraising. The vice president did not break
the law, the report concluded, because there was no evidence that 'any
individuals called by the vice president were on federal property when
they were solicited.'" [29]
Alleged Gore fib: 'I've been a part of the discussions on the
Strategic Petroleum Reserve since the days it was first established.'
Analysis: Critics point out that the Reserve was established December
22, 1975, two years before Gore went to Congress. Gore's staff
counters that the Reserve's first storage sites were acquired in April
1977, the first oil delivered July 1977. Construction of the first
surface facilities began in June 1978. Gore began serving on the
subcommittee overseeing petroleum policy in early 1977, and
subsequently voted for doubling the Reserve to one billion barrels
from its original 500 million. [30]
Alleged Gore fib: He "invented the Internet."
Analysis: Gore's wording made it clear he was not speaking of a
technical feat: "During my service in the United States Congress I
took the initiative in creating the Internet." On May 5, 2000, Lars
Erik Nelson wrote, "This claim is perfectly true." On August 9, 2000,
Richard Cohen wrote, "He did. You can look it up." A number of those
considered to have technically "fathered" the Internet confirm the
importance of Gore's role. [31, 32]
Alleged Gore fib: That he and his wife, Tipper, were models for the
main characters in the novel Love Story.
Analysis: Gore actually told reporters he read this thirty years ago
in the Nashville Tennessean. The original article hasn't been
located, but archivists don't think that necessarily means it doesn't
exist. Segal accepts Gore's recollection and considers it was the
Tennessean article that exaggerated the novel's very real connection
to Gore. Segal's protagonist was a composite of Gore and his college
roommate, actor Tommy Lee Jones. But Jenny, the female lead, was not
based on Tipper. [33]
Alleged Gore fib: Of Sarasota high school student Kailey Ellis: "Her
science class was supposed to be for 24 students. She is the 36th
student in that classroom, sent me a picture of her in the classroom.
They can't squeeze another desk in for her, so she has to stand during
class."
Analysis: Although Gore was incorrect that Kailey was still standing,
his statement was a perfectly reasonable interpretation of the
September 10 Herald-Tribune article he'd been given the day of the
debate. [34]
Alleged Gore fib: Winifred Skinner "gets a small pension, but in order
to pay for her prescription drug benefits, she has to go out seven
days week, several hours a day, picking up cans. She came all the way
from Iowa in a Winnebago, with her poodle, in order to attend here
tonight."
Analysis: Republicans smelled a rat in the Winnebago, which they
assumed she owned. And the Washington Post disclosed that Earl King,
Skinner's son, "could easily support his mother. King is an affluent
consultant who works with many of the country's major air-conditioning
companies and lives on an 80-acre ranch, complete with horses." [35]
However, King also said his mother was "poverty-stricken," that "he
has offered financial support but 'my mother has declined. She wants
her dignity.'"
The Winnebago apparently belongs to the Gore campaign, not Winifred
Skinner. [36]
Is Bush Any Different?
For some reason, it doesn't seem to register with the pundits that
Bush, like Gore and many other politicians, makes statements that seem
deliberately false. We know this even without investigative reporters
having sifted through twenty years of public statements in search of
discrepancies, as they have with Gore. [37]
When told that several states prohibit the execution of mentally
retarded convicts, Bush replied, "So do we, in Texas." In fact, Bush
opposed a 1999 bill that attempted to ban such executions, and it was
defeated. During Bush's governorship, African-American Terry
Washington, a mentally retarded victim of fetal-alcohol syndrome, was
executed. [38]
Paul Krugman is not only a New York Times Columnist. He is also the
Ford International Professor of Economics at MIT, and served as chief
international economist of the Council of Economic Advisers under
Ronald Reagan. In 1991, he was given the American Economic
Association's John Bates Clark award for his "significant contribution
to economic knowledge."
Krugman has pointed out that, in his campaign appearances, Bush
routinely "pulls out four dollar bills to represent the projected
budget surplus, then says that he plans to use only one of those
bills, one-quarter of the surplus, for tax cuts. Anyone who has looked
at his campaign's own numbers...knows that this isn't right." Krugman
contrasts this misstatement, which Bush often makes but which the
media ignores, with Gore's one-time Shiloh misstatement, which echoed
through the media for weeks. "Mr. Gore's numbers were off, but the
thrust of his story -- that drug companies engage in price
discrimination, charging what the traffic will bear -- is true. On the
other hand, the intended moral of Mr. Bush's story -- that the budget
will easily accommodate his tax cut, that it leaves plenty of money
with which to secure the future of retirees, rebuild the military, and
all that -- isn't at all true.... If this campaign is about 'real
policies for real people,' then we should demand that the candidates
get the really important numbers right." [39]
A week later, Krugman blew another whistle. "Bush's performance on
'Moneyline' last Wednesday was just mind-blowing. I had to download a
transcript to convince myself that I had really heard him correctly.
It was as if Mr. Bush's aides had prepared him with a memo saying:
'You've said some things on the stump that weren't true. Your mission,
in the few minutes you have, is to repeat all of those things. Don't
speak in generalities -- give specific false numbers. That'll show
them!' .... Is there any way to explain away Mr. Bush's remarks --
three major self-serving misstatements in the course of only a couple
of minutes? Not that I can see. We're not talking questionable
economic analysis here, just facts: what Mr. Bush said to that
national television audience simply wasn't true....I don't want to
keep writing about this. But...someone has to point out that in an
interview intended to showcase his economic program, Mr. Bush did it
again: he vastly exaggerated his spending plans, greatly understated
the cost of his tax cut and misrepresented the issues on Social
Security." [40]
Nor were the debates exempt from such Bush examples. In the third
debate, Bush claimed, "I brought Republicans and Democrats
together...in the state of Texas, to get a patients' bill of rights
through." However, the truth is that this happened despite his
opposition. The Boston Globe reported: "In fact, in 1995 Bush vetoed
a patient's bill of rights...that contained many of the provisions
that he praised last night: report cards on health maintenance
organizations, liberal emergency room access, and the elimination of a
gag clause forbidding doctors from telling patients about more costly
treatment options than HMO coverage. At the time, Bush said these
provisions would be too costly to business. Bush did sign some of the
provisions into law two years later. But he opposed the right to sue
HMOs in court....But a bipartisan, veto-proof majority in the Texas
Legislature supported the right to sue. Bush let the provision go into
law without his signature." [41]
Bush stated his position on vouchers as, "Vouchers are up to states.
If you want to do a voucher program in Missouri, fine." But the Los
Angeles Times explains in detail that "George W. Bush's plan
explicitly mandates that states, whether they want to or not, help
fund the kind of voucher program that is now the top priority of
voucher advocates: one aimed at students from low-income families in
poorly performing public schools." [42]
Historian Sean Wilentz has associated the current Gore
"pseudo-scandal" with Daniel J. Boorstin's "pseudo-event." "One of
the main features of the pseudo-scandal is that it carries on
willy-nilly, impervious to facts," Wilentz observed. "In the past
year, painstaking articles in several publications have exposed the
emptiness of the allegations against Gore. Nonetheless, the charges
linger in the public mind as commonplace knowledge, and the repeated
depiction of Gore as scandal-tainted could prove important, perhaps
even decisive, in November. If it does, it will be the ultimate
triumph of the pseudo-scandal." [43]
I would like to thank Filia Rationis. I would not have been able to
do this without her.
Al Gore and the Truth, version 1.2
Keith Woodard
Al Gore - Problem with the Truth?
Footnotes
by Keith Woodard
1. David Neiwert, "Al Gore is a liar? That's not true"
http://www.msnbc.com/news/476106.asp?cp1=1
2. Harold Evans, "No nose for the truth" _The Guardian_, June 12,
2000
Web: http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4028284,00.html
3. Bonna M. de la Cruz, "Gore got him in big trouble, but Haddox is a
supporter," Nashville Tennessean, April 16, 2000
Web: http://www.tennessean.com/sii/00/04/16/haddoxmain16.shtml
4. "Though Nancy was never a Peace Corp volunteer in the traditional
sense (as her brother later described her in speeches), she did forgo
paychecks in the first few months, and often forgot to cash them when
she became a paid staffer." David Maraniss and Ellen Nakashima, _The
Prince of Tennessee_, Simon & Schuster, 2000 (Note: the book citation
here is from:
http://www.dailyhowler.com/h101000_1.shtml .
I have not personally read the book. Also, while I don't think Gore
ever explicitly claimed she was a "volunteer in the traditional
sense," I think it's fair to say he left that impression.)
Melinda Henneberger quotes, without comment or contradiction, Gore's
statement that, "'I was blown away by his inaugural address. I
remember so vividly the thick snow on the seats, and listening to each
word bring out such poetic force. Really, it was a remarkable time. My
sister was one of the first volunteers for the Peace Corps that month,
and the whole family was filled with the excitement of the New
Frontier.'" Melinda Henneberger, "AL GORE'S JOURNEY A Boyhood
Divided," New York Times, May 22, 2000
5. Bob Zelnick, _Gore: A Political Life_, Regnery Publishing, 1999, p
82
6. Melinda Henneberger, "Al Gore's Journey Off to War," New York
Times, July 11, 2000
Web: http://www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/071100wh-gore.html
7. Bill Turque, _Inventing Al Gore: a biography_, Houghton Mifflin
Company, 2000
8. Henneberger, July 11, op. cit.
9. Jacob Weisberg, "Slander Patrol: Saving Private Gore?" _Slate_,
November 29,
Web:
http://slate.msn.com/code/BallotBox/BallotBox.asp?Show=11/29/99&idMessage=4078
10. Turque, op. cit.
11. According to Henneberger, "Al Gore's military record is in no
particular need of improvement. He was one of only about a dozen of
the 1,115 Harvard graduates in the Class of '69 who went to Vietnam.
And even before enlisting, he passed up a chance to serve in the
National Guard -- the military option chosen by his presidential
opponent, George W. Bush. A cousin of Mr. Gore said she and her
then-husband had secured the promise of a place for him in the Alabama
Guard. 'I had friends who had gone to Vietnam, and one who had come
back a paraplegic, and I was beside myself wanting to keep Al out of
there,' said the cousin, Gayle Byrne, of Birmingham, who grew up near
Carthage, Tenn., where the Gores spent summers on their farm. So Ms.
Byrne's former husband, a member of the Guard, asked a well-placed
contact to hold a spot for Mr. Gore. 'When the word came back that
yes, they would hold a slot, we were so excited,' Ms. Byrne
remembered. 'But he said, I appreciate what you've done, but I just
don't believe I can do this.'" Henneberger, July 11, op. cit.
12. Terry M. Neal, "Bush Camp Tags Gore as Untrustworthy, Liberal,"
Washington Post, October 4, 2000
Web: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9411-2000Oct4.html
13. In an interview printed by the New York Times on March 12, Gore
said: "You have to wonder whether [Bush] has the experience to be
president. I mean, you really have to wonder. ... You have to wonder:
Does Governor Bush have the experience to be president? ... Again you
have to wonder: Does George Bush have the experience to be president?"
Katharine Q. Seelye, "Gore Assails Bush on Taxes And Calls Rival
Inexperienced," New York Times, March 13, 2000
14. "In any case, Mr. Gore continued his theme from the morning
speech, saying that Mr. Bush's call for a huge tax cut 'raises the
question, "Does he have the experience to be president?'" Katharine Q.
Seelye, "Gore Challenges Bush Credibility on Policy Speeches," The New
York Times, April 13, 2000
15. "I think it is naive to, and reflects inexperience to talk about,
skipping a whole generation of modernization and asking our military
services to wait while using increasingly obsolete equipment. I think
that view, which has been expressed by some, really reflects
inexperience and naivet�. You just can't skip a generation of
modernization without paying a heavy cost in the form of increased
risk in using obsolete technology." Al Gore, Military Times, April 5,
2000. This was cited on Usenet. I have not seen the article.
16. "As young Gore later often told the story, he had been
interviewed the day before by Charles Bartlett, the veteran Chicago
Sun-Times columnist from Chattanooga, a family friend who had known
Albert Gore Sr., the senior senator from Tennessee, since his early
days in the House. Bartlett 'had passed the apogee of his career' by
1968 but was 'still a very eloquent writer,' Gore said, and was one of
those helping Humphrey with his speech at the convention. 'And he came
and spent an hour with me, asking what people my age thought about the
war.' As Gore sat in the convention hall and looked up at Humphrey in
the spotlight, he thought that he heard his own words coming back to
him. He was convinced that the vice president's speechwriters had
incorporated his suggestions into the acceptance speech -- evoking
'the end of an era,' the promise of a 'prompt end to the war,' the
assertion that no one wanted 'a police state,' the call for 'young
Americans . . . to continue as vocal, creative and even critical
participants in the politics of our time.' Hearing those phrases, Gore
said later, led him to the conclusion that 'there was no doubt Mr.
Bartlett had faithfully conveyed some of the feelings that I had tried
to describe.'" David Maraniss and Ellen Nakashima, "Tumultuous '68
Summer Began Gore's Political Pull," Washington Post, December 27,
1999
Web: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37508-1999Dec26.html
17. Text from Walter V. Robinson and Michael Crowley, "Record shows
Gore long embellishing truth," Boston Globe, April 11, 2000
18. Myra MacPherson, "Al Gore and the window of certainty," Washington
Post, February 2, 1988, citation from:
http://www.dailyhowler.com/h051100_1.shtml . I have not seen the
article.
19. Bob Somerby, at:
http://www.dailyhowler.com/h051100_1.shtml
This devastating article shows Robinson and Crowley to be part of the
"breakdown in basic standards of journalism."
20. Text from Ceci Connolly, "Gore Paints Himself As No Beltway Baby,"
Washington Post, December 1, 1999
21. Mike Pride, "OUT HERE: Just One Word," Brill's Content, March
2000.
22. Walter V. Robinson, "Gore misstates facts in drug-cost pitch,"
Boston Globe, September 18, 2000; Glen Johnson, "Prescription story is
a pill for Gore," Boston Globe, September 19, 2000
23. Ellen Nakashima and David Maraniss, "Al Gore and the Legacy of
Race," Washington Post, April 23, 2000
24. Washington Post: "Here was the farm where his father taught Al to
use an ax, square-bale hay, clear the tobacco patch and once, in the
summer of his fifteenth year, how to plow a slanted hillside with a
team of mules. The stiff preppy Geeing and Hawing his mules? The very
notion has prompted doubts and some ridicule. But his Carthage friends
are puzzled by the skepticism. Steve Armistead, Edd Blair, Goat
Thompson, and Terry Pope all worked alongside Al for several summers.
They fooled around when they could -- filling the cattle trough with
cold water and diving in, driving jalopies wildly down the farm hill,
hypnotizing chickens -- but not when the old man was watching. 'Senior
always wanted Al to do this and do that," recalled Steve Armistead.
"His dad really wanted him to work.' Perhaps there was a long-range
political purpose to Albert's insistence that his son learn the ways
of rural life, but the intent did not seem to be that Al could later
use the farm as a convenient counterpoint to his Ivy League schooling.
Gore Senior believed that farm work was invaluable in and of itself.
Pauline later recalled one afternoon when she and Albert were inside
the big house, looking out the picture window toward the Caney Fork,
and there was Al down below, behind the mules, and the father said
contentedly, 'I think a boy, to achieve anything he wants to achieve,
which would include being president of the United States, oughta be
able to run a hillside plow.'" -- David Maraniss and Ellen Nakashima,
"Gore Learns From Father's Life," Washington Post, October 3, 1999
New York Times: "But in separating the facts from the fanciful in Mr.
Gore's life, perhaps the most striking discovery is the extent to
which the material that is the most widely doubted is also the most
demonstrably true: Al Gore did do a lot of his growing up in
Tennessee. He did work hard on the farm there -- so hard, in fact,
that the hired help felt sorry for him, and thought his father should
ease up....In the same way, some of what is generally assumed about
Mr. Gore's life is not true: he did not, for example, live in luxury
back in Washington during the school year....Mr. Gore's parents were
both famously frugal and were not well off until after their son had
grown and after the senator's political career had ended. Though they
sent their children to exclusive schools and provided such social
necessities as ballroom dancing lessons for their son, they also
dressed him in a cousin's hand-me-downs and lived in a hotel because
it was owned by a relative who gave them a break on the rent....Though
his political opponents have successfully portrayed him as a pure-bred
Washington creature, with only photo-op moments in the heartland, he
did have a life there, on the family farm, and by all accounts a more
intense emotional connection to that place than to the nation's
capital....Of course, Mr. Gore is the product of both Washington and
Tennessee -- and of the very fact of having grown up in two places,
with two groups of friends and two ways of looking at the world. He
was born in Washington, lived in Tennessee from the time he was 1
until he was 4, while his father ran for the Senate, and then moved
between the two places until college.... '[Farm work] was expected
from the time he was little,' said James Fleming, a Nashville doctor
and friend of Nancy Gore's, who for a time served as the Gore family
physician. It was not so much that the Gores thought cleaning out
barns would add just the right touch of 'log cabin' to his r�sum�,
family friends said, as that they simply felt it would toughen him up
and give him a proper work ethic....He baled hay, cut tobacco and
cleaned out hog parlors along with the hired help....But the senator
also seemed to revel in assigning his son some of the most
backbreaking tasks, like clearing 20 hilly acres with a hand
ax....'He'd drive him pretty hard,' said Gordon Thompson, a friend
whose family used to live on the Gore farm, back when his own father
worked for the senator....But then, [Gore Jr.] drove himself hard,
too. Even at 4-H camp, as a 9-year-old, he asked to be given the
heavy-lifting kitchen duty usually reserved for 13- and 14-year-olds.
'He was the only camper I ever had volunteer for K-P,' said Jerry
Cole, the local 4-H agent." Melinda Henneberger, "AL GORE'S JOURNEY A
Boyhood Divided," New York Times, May 22, 2000
25. Calvin Woodward, "Gore's embellishments persist, even in the
spotlight," Associated Press, October 6, 2000
26. Gore: "[Bradley's proposals were] an old-style approach that
spends a lot of money but doesn't have any new ideas. [He proposes]
the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit. I was the author of
that proposal. I wrote that, so I say, welcome aboard. That is
something for which I have been the principal proponent for a long
time." Karen Tumulty, Interview with Al Gore, Time magazine, November
1, 1999
"The Gore-Downey bill would aim an additional break at working
families with children who are just above the poverty line by
expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit." Paul Taylor, "Hill Democrats
Unveil Middle-Class Tax Cut Plan," Washington Post, May 7, 1991
27. Bob Somerby, editor of _The Daily Howler_, has an extensive
treatment at:
http://dailyhowler.com/h052200_1.shtml
None of the many Gore critiques on this, that I've read, have produced
any statements showing Gore ever disagreed with Roe v Wade.
28. Roger Parloff, "Temple In a Teapot," The American Lawyer, May 31,
2000
Web:
http://www.law.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?GXHC_gx_session_id_FutureTenseContentServer=c511a3ae9203db63&pagename=law/View&c=Article&cid=ZZZ6S5RQK7C&live=true&cst=1&pc=0&pa=0&s=News&ExpIgnore=true&showsumma
ry=0&useoverridetemplate=ZZZHCC0Q95C
Alternate link:
http://www.law.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=law/View&c=Article&cid=ZZZ6S5RQK7C&live=true&cst=1&pc=0&pa=0&s=News&ExpIgnore=true&showsummary=0
(Both links seem to work.)
Also, John B. Judis, "Al Gore and the Temple of Doom," The American
Prospect vol. 11 no. 11, April 24, 2000
Web: http://www.prospect.org/archives/V11-11/jjudis.html
(Differences between the two assessments are at least in part
attributable to the fact that Judis hadn't read the later Parloff
account.); Good introduction to Parloff at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/nj/taylor2000-06-07.htm
29. John B. Judis, op. cit.
30. Here is the exact text from:
http://www.algore.com/briefingroom/releases/pr_092300_Gore_Wins_1.html
:
STRATEGIC PETROLEUM RESERVE WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1977.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was first established on July 21, 1977
when the first oil was delivered to the reserve. The government
acquired the first salt caverns to serve as the first storage sites
for the reserve in April of 1977 and construction of the first surface
facilities for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve began in June 1978. The
Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 set in motion the evolving
process of setting up an oil reserve that would have 500 million
barrels of oil in 1982. [Oil & Gas Journal, January 30, 1978]
GORE SERVED ON KEY COMMITTEE ON OIL POLICY.
Al Gore began serving on the House Commerce subcommittee on Energy and
Power, which oversees petroleum policy, in early 1977.
GORE FAVORED DOUBLING AMOUNT OF OIL IN STRATEGIC RESERVE.
Al Gore voted in favor of President Carter's National Energy Program
which called for doubling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to one
billion barrels from its original 500 million. [CQ Vote #454, 7/29/77,
passed 254-120 (D234-17; R 20-103)]
31. "Several of the people who could claim to have 'invented' the
Internet, or key pieces of its protocols -- in particular, Vinton Cerf
and Robert Kahn -- are out there on the Net today defending Gore,
asserting that he was the politician in Washington who took the
'initiative' to support the Net in its early days....That's what
you'll hear from Phillip Hallam-Baker, a former member of the CERN Web
development team that created the basic structure of the World Wide
Web. Hallam-Baker calls the campaign to tar Gore as a delusional
Internet inventor 'a calculated piece of political propaganda to deny
Gore credit for what is probably his biggest achievement.' .... "'In
the early days of the Web,' says Hallam-Baker, who was there, 'he was
a believer, not after the fact when our success was already
established -- he gave us help when it counted. He got us the funding
to set up at MIT after we got kicked out of CERN for being too
successful. He also personally saw to it that the entire federal
government set up Web sites. Before the White House site went online,
he would show the prototype to each agency director who came into his
office. At the end he would click on the link to their agency site. If
it returned 'Not Found' the said director got a powerful message that
he better have a Web site before he next saw the veep.'" Scott
Rosenberg, "Did Gore invent the Internet?" Salon, October 5, 2000
Web:
www.salon.com/tech/col/rose/2000/10/05/gore_internet/index.html?CP=YAH&DN=110
32. In June 1986, back when there were fewer than 5,000 network host
sites (there are tens of millions today) available to a comparative
handful of knowledgeable users, Gore, then a senator from Tennessee,
introduced the Supercomputer Network Study Act in response to fears in
the research community that the U.S. was dangerously lagging in this
area. Then in October 1988, Gore introduced the National
High-Performance Computer Technology Act. After it died, he
reintroduced it in May of the following year. It called for more
ambitious funding to improve and expand the connections between
universities, libraries and other institutions....Computer scientist
Vinton Cerf, sometimes called 'The Father of the Internet,' was
co-designer of the communications protocol that forms the backbone of
the Internet and a pioneer in the academic/military computer networks
from which the Internet sprung. In a statement sent to me Monday by
MCI WorldCom, where he is now senior vice president of Internet
Architecture and Technology, Cerf wrote: 'Gore's support for the
research agencies ... helped to shape the development of the NSFNET--a
national network with international connections that took up where its
predecessor, the ARPANET, left off. ... By the mid-late 1980s,
then-Senator Gore had become a visible proponent of NSFNET, which
enthusiasm and insight continued and grew with his election to the
Vice Presidency. For having seen the potential in these technologies,
and for having pursued and argued for legislation and administration
support for research in these areas ... I think it is entirely fitting
that the Vice President take some credit for helping to create an
environment in which [the] Internet could thrive.'" Eric Zorn, "Gore's
Internet Link Is Nothing To Joke About," Chicago Tribune, August 22,
2000:
33. USA Today, September 19, 2000; Robert Parry, "He's No Pinocchio,"
The Washington Monthly, April 2000; Eric Zorn, "Gore Connection To
`Love Story' A Muddled Affair," Chicago Tribune, August 28, 2000;
Melinda Henneburger, "Author Says 'Love Story' Was Based on Gore," New
York Times, December 14, 1997
34. According to a debate follow-up story by Sarasota's local paper,
the Herald-Tribune, "Kailey and several other students were forced to
stand at various times during the first few weeks of school because
budget cuts pushed up class sizes beyond expectations, according to
interviews with students and teachers and firsthand observations by
Herald-Tribune reporters." Jill Barton, "Debate on our doorstep," The
Herald-Tribune, October 5, 2000
Although Gore was not correct that Kailey was still standing, his
interpretation of the September 10 Herald-Tribune article he'd been
given the day of the debate was reasonable. The article stated, A)
"Kailey Ellis, 15, stands in the back of her science class because
there isn't room for another desk to accommodate her." B) "But budget
cuts caused class sizes to swell for many public high school teachers
this year, and Ellis' teacher, Spike Black, was forced to require up
to four students to stand every class," C) "As a result, the budget
mess has produced devastating results just three weeks into the school
year," and D) "School officials warn that it will only get worse."
Jill Barton, "Schools struggle through cuts," The Herald-Tribune,
September 10, 2000
35. John Mintz, "Gore's 'Can Lady' Not in Dire Straits," Washington
Post, October 5, 2000
36. The Associated Press confirmed her financial independence from
her son, suggesting the Winnebago was not Winifred's after all: "Her
role in his campaign peaked when she was driven 1,300 miles to Boston
in a Winnebago to be in the audience....Skinner said she did not want
to take money from her son, Earl King, who lives on an 80-acre ranch.
'When I can't support myself, I'm done,' she said. 'You've got to have
some pride....They say my son's got money. Maybe so, but that's not
me. If he starts supporting me, then I'm no longer my own person.'"
Susan Stocum, "Gore's New Friend Comes Home Tired," Associated Press,
October 6, 2000
As far back as October 2, the Post had implied Winifred did not own
the Winnebago: "[A]fter she told Vice President Gore at a town
meeting Wednesday that she spends up to three hours a day collecting
aluminum cans to make ends meet.... the Gore campaign has...dispatched
a Winnebago to take her there from Des Moines." Howard Kurtz, "Al
Gore's Can-Do Consultant," Washington Post, October 2, 2000
This is corroborated by the New York Times: "The Gore campaign offered
to fly her to Sarasota and Boston, but she declined because she is
afraid to fly. The campaign then offered to drive her to Boston. She
hesitated because she did not want to leave behind her 6-year-old toy
poodle, Bridget. You can bring the dog, the campaign said." -- Kevin
Sack, "Gore's Debate 'Advisers' Include Voices From the Campaign
Trail," New York Times, September 29, 2000
37. "Many of Gore's inflated claims have been reported, though only a
few prominently. But a review by the Globe of Gore's public statements
over more than 20 years, as well as two recent biographies, suggest
that the pattern has been more pronounced than previously believed,
and that it remains unchecked." Walter V. Robinson and Michael
Crowley, "Record shows Gore long embellishing truth," Boston Globe,
April 11, 2000
One of the purposes of my article is to show that, contrary to the
claims of Robinson and Crowley, Gore's "pattern" has been far _less_
"pronounced than previously believed." Note that Robinson and Crowley
attribute to Gore himself claims made only in his campaign
advertising. That doesn't absolve Gore of responsibility, but for an
eye-opening look at what happens when Bush is held to the same
standard, see:
http://www.geocities.com/gore_in_context/b-correct.html
In addition to this link (cited above):
http://www.dailyhowler.com/h051100_1.shtml
where Somerby dismantles Robinson and Crowley on rural schooling,
Somerby pokes more holes in the Globe article at:
http://www.dailyhowler.com/h051000_1.shtml
and
http://www.dailyhowler.com/h051200_1.shtml
On the other hand, regarding Gore's claim to seven years as a
journalist, I believe, based on information in Turque's biography,
that Robinson and Crowley are right and Somerby wrong.
38. John W. Gonzalez and Polly Ross Hughes, "Despite records, Bush
denies mentally retarded executed," Houston Chronicle, August 10,
2000. Citation is from:
http://gore_in_context.tripod.com/b-retarded.html . I have not seen
the article, and the Chronicle link has apparently expired.
39. Paul Krugman, "Wag the Dog," New York Times, September 24, 2000
40. Paul Krugman, "Oops! He Did It Again" New York Times, October 1,
2000
41. Walter V. Robinson and Raja Mishra, "A few missing facts," Boston
Globe, October 18, 2000
A lengthy analysis of this is contained in: George Lardner Jr., "Fact
Check: On HMOs, Bush a Reluctant Reformer," Washington Post, February
17, 2000
Web: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61362-2000Feb16.html
42. Ronald Brownstein, "Bush Muddies the Waters in Spelling Out
States' Role in His Voucher Plan," Los Angeles Times, October 4, 2000
43. Sean Wilentz, "Will Pseudo-Scandals Decide the Election?,"
_American Prospect_ Volume 11 Issue 21 September 24 - October 2,
2000
Web: http://www.americanprospect.com/archives/V11-21/wilentz-s.html
Al Gore - Problem with the Truth? - Footnotes
Keith Woodard
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