From The Archives ... (An Elephant Never Forgets, Algore!)

AL GORE (D-TN) TODAY DENOUNCED THE WAR IN IRAQ: "Raising his voice to a yell, he drew early applause by angrily denouncing the administration. ... President Bush 'has exposed Americans abroad and Americans in every town and city to a greater danger of attacks by terrorists because of his arrogance, willfulness, and bungling at stirring up hornets nests that pose no threat whatsoever to us,' Gore said." (Sara Kugler, "Gore: Rumsfeld, Rice, Tenet Should Step Down," The Associated Press, 5/26/04)

GORE IN 1998 CALLED FOR NATIONAL UNITY AGAINST SADDAM, DEFENDED ATTACK ON SADDAM: "We need national resolve and unity, not weakness and division when we're involved engaged in an action against someone like Saddam Hussein, who is trying to get weapons of mass destruction and threaten his neighbors. ... [I]f you allow someone like Saddam Hussein to get nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, chemical weapons, biological weapons, how many people is he going to kill with such weapons? He's already demonstrated a willingness to use these weapons; he poison gassed his own people. He used poison gas and other weapons of mass destruction against his neighbors. This man has no compunctions about killing lots and lots of people. So this is a way to save lives and to save the stability and peace of a region of the world that is important to the peace and security of the entire world." (CNN's "Larry King Live," 12/16/98)

I'm still waiting for someone to bring up the fact (When Al & the Dems start whining about releasing oil from our reserves) that Clinton, Richardson, by a deal cut by Al Gore sold our reserves at Elk Hills, Ca. to Occidental Petroleum at less than market price.

Here's a portion of an article from TomPaine.com...hardly part of the VRWC!

http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/2780

Published: Feb 23 2000
****
MEDIA SILENCE ON AL GORE: Why Haven't Reporters Questioned Him About His Ties to Oxy?

The Sound of Silence Is Deafening

David Case is the executive editor of TomPaine.com.

For decades, Vice President Gore has been receiving $20,000 annual payments from Occidental Petroleum, ostensibly for the mineral rights on land. But the company has never used the land, and the Gores currently rent it out to a competing firm.

So what does the firm get for its money? The answer is not clear. But Occidental won a bid last year for the prized Elk Hills oil reserve, tripling the company's U.S oil reserves. The sale, which was the largest privatization of a national asset ever, was advocated by the vice president in his drive to "re-invent government."

The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) published these revelations in its book The Buying of the President 2000 in early January, 2000. Hardly a hip-shooting advocacy outfit, CPI is the same group, led by former 60 Minutes producer Charles Lewis, that broke the Lincoln bedroom story in 1996.

Maybe patronage from a major oil company - which may whiff of conflict of interest, if not outright corruption - isn't as sexy as the White-House-as-Motel 6. Nonetheless, at least for readers of the major dailies, CPI's revelations may well have never been made.

The cozy relationship received some ink in local newspapers, and it was briefly covered on both the Wall Street Journal and New York Times editorial pages. But so far, according to CPI and a Lexis-Nexis search, Gore hasn't fielded a single question from the majors' phalanx of campaign trail journalists.

Granted, these reporters have treated conscientious voters to up-to-the-minute stories on Gore's penchant for drab suits, and his alpha-male complex. It's understandable, therefore, that there's been no time to probe a matter as boring as possible high-level corruption.

Nonetheless, at least some people think it should be front-page news. "It seems to be the type of thing that voters ought to know about," says Tom Wicker, a veteran New York Times columnist (and TomPaine.com contributor).

CPI admits that there's no smoking gun, no document linking Gore to a corrupt decision. "Politics are more nuanced than that," says CPI's Peter Eisner. There is, he points out, an intriguing trend:

* For decades, Occidental has patronized the Gore family (in the 1970s the vice president inherited the Oxy payments from his father, who was given a $500,000 per year job when he retired from the Senate).

* Then, in his effort to "re-invent government" Gore recommended the sale of Elk Hills, a strategic oil reserve which the government has guardedly held since the early twentieth century.

* Finally, the Department of Energy, in an unusual closed bid, sold the reserve to Occidental. "The bids are still sealed to this hour," despite CPI's attempts to review them, according to Eisner. Moreover, he points out, "the environmental review for the Elk Hills sale was conducted by ICF Kaiser, on whose board Gore's campaign manager Tony Coehlo sits."
When CPI's investigators asked the campaign about the payments and the appearance of corruption, Gore's lawyers stonewalled them. Gore's office didn't return TomPaine.com's requests for comment.

At least one investigative reporter from a major daily is looking into the issue. But in the meantime, the primary season is forging ahead. Voters may find out too late that their candidate is soiled.

You're right, Gore is a flip-flopper, and a lot of Democrats I know didn't even like him. It's not a Democrat-only disease though.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4179618/

Russert: You do seem to have changed your mind from the 2000 campaign. In a debate, you said, "I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation-building.'"

President Bush: Yeah.

Russert: We clearly are involved in nation-building.

President Bush: Right. And I also said — let me put it in context. I'm not suggesting you're pulling one of these Washington tricks where you leave half the equation out.

But I did say also that our troops must be trained and prepared to fight and win war and, therefore, make peace more possible. And our troops were trained to fight and win war, and we did, and a second phase of the war is now going on. The first phase, of course, was the Tommy Franks troop movement.

Russert: But this is nation-building.

President Bush: Well, it is. [More non-answer follows]
----

Wow! After reading all that, I'm not sure I remember what the definition of "is" is anymore.

Russert: But this is nation-building.

Well, was there a question in there someplace?

No. But it was a mistake for Bush to go along with the premise, i.e. to let Tim decide the answer. Note, Tim wouldn't pose it as, "What do you call 'nation building', Mr. President?" He simply assumes his own judgement.

Fact is, this is not "what's called 'nation building'". This is filling the vacuum after vanquishing a threat to national security. The proof is the turnover June 30, which will just burn the Looney Left like jock itch when it happens.

Just the same, Looney conveniently omits the rest of the response, so maybe Bush does address that. And I don't see how this response by Bush, even if he is admitting a position change, is Anything like Slick Willie's "is" gag. After all, "nation building is a very vague term - a lot more vague than "is" or "sex" - and Bush's earlier stated position poses it as such: "...what's called 'nation-building'."

Looney needs to engage brain before typing.

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