My how things change...or, well, stay the same. Gore, a hypocrit??? WHO KNEW!?
Damn that VRWC...
Boy, I hate when that happens! ;^D
When God was handing out brains, AlGore was out getting iced tea.
What we need is for Ashcroft to start prosecuting traitors who pose as politicians and give aid and comfort to the enemy.
What's that saying...about not letting facts get in the way of an opinion?
Viking Kitties, take your positions! Wonder which one has the blank shell...
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
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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.
BTTT