Posted on 09/10/2001 2:20:12 AM PDT by kattracks
In his election book "The Accidental President," David Kaplan also reveals an earlier, scrapped, secret plan hatched by Al Gore while his aides were trying to figure out how they could collect enough horror stories to convince a judge that the Florida ballot was confusing, Kaplan writes.
The Kaplan report confirms earlier reports that Gore, using his Blair House residence as his war room, personally directed a campaign of intimidation and sleaze to capture Florida's electoral votes.
"Gore had not only been thinking about the problem, but he'd done something about it. He'd called Erin Brockovich ... the real Erin Brockovich. The vice president thought 'she should come to Florida and lead our efforts to collect affidavits.' "
Gore aide Michael Whouley told the Vice President he thought it was a really bad idea, while aide Ron Klain, exhausted, said, "Sounds fine to me, it's great."
Klain said later: "Bring in a camel with three heads. It just seemed like the whole thing's a huge menagerie at this point. Erin Brockovich - of course!"
Brockovich is a real-life character who was portrayed by actress Julia Roberts in the movie "Erin Brockovich."
The movie is based on her story – one that is the dream of every trial lawyer.
Working as a lawyer's secretary, she stumbled upon files that revealed a cover-up involving contaminated water that was causing devastating illnesses among the residents of a community.
Going door to door, she signed up over 600 plaintiffs, and Erin, with the help of a major law firm, went on to receive the largest settlement ever paid in a direct-action lawsuit in U.S. history – $333 million.
To get the full story, read Washington Times' reporter Bill Sammon's "At Any Cost: How Al Gore Tried to Steal the Election," which details how the media and the Gore campaign cost Bush 10,000 votes in Florida by having the results called before polling had finished.
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Presidential Race 2000
RON KLAIN: By paying off the national debt, we extend the life of Social Security in two ways. First, we create the fund's available to pay back those IOU's in Social Security.
Ron Klain, exhausted, said, "Sounds fine to me, it's great."
Klain said later: "Bring in a camel with three heads. It just seemed like the whole thing's a huge menagerie at this point. Erin Brockovich - of course!"
I repeat: Hubba hubba
When did Gore ever live in Blair House? The VP Mansion is at the Naval Observatory, several miles from Blair House which is accross the street from the White House.
Sloppy journalism. ;~))
Is that Kosher to use a government building for an election campaign? Hmmmm?
Well, it's nice to know he didn't change tactics from pre-to-post election....
What I found especially horrifying, thanks to Sammon's FACTUAL based book - is that he put the interest of the country (and therefore the Constitution) FOURTH on a list of priorities during his attempted coup - first on his list was of course himself and Loserman, errr, Lieberman....
Sounds like Kaplan's book is pure democratic blither...all emotion, no fact, just like the Dems positions on anything - how do we feel about it? What do the polls say? Instead of "what's in the country's best interest?".....ick.
This is terribly frightening. In spite of all the favorable PR that Erin Brockovich has received by traveling in Democrat circles (including C-SPAN last week), the bottom line is she's misrepresented facts on behalf of a 40% settlement stake of $300+ million for her crooked lawyer-boss Ed Masry.
The movie is a whitewash, as anyone who has researched it knows, both factually and in terms of the Brockovich-Masry relationship. Chromium 6 has never been proven to cause cancer when it is ingested in liquids, but only when airborne. The settlement was simply a business move on the part of PG&E to reduce their financial exposure to a potentially more-sympathetic jury. The jury awards were distributed to the "victims" based more on their favoritism to Brockovich than their injuries received.
Edward L. Masry himself was convicted of a felony ("Morningside" Case, Escondido Court, San Diego County, 1982) for attempted bribery of CA Lieutenant Governor Dymally in the late 70's, though it was later vacated due to alleged jury misconduct. Masry was also attorney to notorious Televangelist Dr. "Gene" Scott, and represented him when he tried to renege on a $23 million church purchase in Downtown LA with only $6 million in payments, in a bogus "lost deed" case that was thrown out of court (Church of the Open Door, Los Angeles County, 1987). No less than Brockovich's ex-husband and ex-boyfriend teamed up to present information that there was an ongoing Brockovich-Masry affair (despite Masry's being married) just last year.
So for Gore to even consider engaging Brockovich for a political move, without excluding her for the questionable actions and associations in her background, is enough to completely discredit Gore's ability to handle the responsibility of taking ethical actions to acquire office!
(I work in the housing industry, and was watching for business purposes only.)
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