High-flying politics
Tony Blankley
Published 9/6/2000
Al Gore is about to have woman troubles: No, not that kind. Her name is Victoria Cummock. She alleges that Mr. Gore was in bed, not with a woman, but with the airline industry he was entrusted to investigate when TWA Flight 800 went down. In June last year she won a little-noted decision in the D.C. Court of Appeals that keeps her search for truth alive. The search continues, and Mr. Gore is about to learn that Mrs. Cummock is not a woman with whom to be trifled.
What brings her case to mind is the maxim of Washington journalism that if a politician champions a particular value, he deserves to be measured by that standard himself. So, when I see Mr. Gore repeatedly assume the heroic pose on behalf of the little guy against the powerful special interests, my thoughts turn to Victoria Cummock. Here's why.
In 1996, in the aftermath of the crash of TWA Flight 800, President Clinton personally called Mrs. Cummock to ask her to serve as a commissioner on The White House Commission on Aviation Safety, created to investigate the crash. He also appointed Mr. Gore to be its chairman. She was chosen because her husband had been killed in the Pan Am 103/Lockerbie crash. Since then, she had become a leading passenger-rights advocate, and Mr. Clinton had assured her he sincerely wanted to develop new, tough counter-terrorism procedures. He instructed Mr. Gore to make recommendations within 45 days.
The Gore Commission produced a tough preliminary report, and at a Sept. 9, 1996, press conference Mr. Gore publicly asserted the need for those changes. And then, all hell broke loose — but for Mr. Gore, not for the terrorists. "Within ten days, the whole [airline] industry jumped all over Al Gore," Mrs. Cummock reported. On Sept. 19, Mr. Gore sent a letter to airline lobbyist Carol Hallett, promising that the commission's findings would not cause the airlines any loss of revenue. The next day the Democratic National Committee received a $40,000 contribution from TWA. In the next two weeks Northwest, United and American Airlines donated $55,000 more.
In the following two months (leading up to the November 1996 presidential elections) American Airlines donated a quarter of a million dollars to the Democrats. United Airlines donated $100,000 to the DNC. Northwestern upped its anty to $53,000. In all, Mr. Gore and the Democrats collected almost half a million dollars between the election and the day — two months before — that Mr. Gore assured the airlines his commission wouldn't cost them any money.
At the time, White House spokesperson Ginny Terzano refused either to confirm or deny that Mr. Gore personally solicited the airline contributions. But that is not what got Victoria Cummock's dander up.
In January 1997, Mr. Gore's staff circulated a draft final report that eliminated all security measures from their findings. Not only Mrs. Cummock, but CIA Director and fellow Commissioner John Deutch complained. So Mr. Gore pulled back the draft. In February Mr. Gore finally came up with the classic Washington ploy. The final report called for sensible new procedures that would cost the airlines millions of dollars: 450 high tech bomb detectors, more training for airport security, criminal background checks for security personnel, increased canine patrols. But Victoria Cummock noticed one thing was missing — there was no timetable to accomplish these requirements. She informed the vice president that without timetables, the report was "toothless" and she couldn't support it, but instead would file a dissent.
It was a classic Washington victory. The policy wonks got their proposals noticed, the airlines got their bottom line protected and Mr. Gore got his party the money. The only losers were the passengers, who got no increased security from terrorism. So, when Mr. Gore actually had a chance to fight, rather than talk about, the powerful special interests on behalf of the little guy, he turned his money-stuffed coat and protected the interests that bought him.
In an open meeting on Feb. 12, Mr. Gore stated that he would leave room in the final report for Victoria Cummock's dissent. A few minutes later at the White House, as Mr. Gore presented the final report to President Clinton, the vice president announced that the report was unanimous. Both of those Gore lies are on video tape. NBC's Dateline has the tapes.
And so Mrs. Cummock went to court. Not on behalf of some conspiracy theory, but on the right to see commission files that were denied her and the right to file a dissent. She only wanted the commission's own findings to be enforced. After winning in the D.C. Court of Appeals last year, she is slowly gaining discovery of the commission's secret files.
She has already found one interesting document in the secret commission files: A letter to Mr. Gore from his now famous convicted felon fund-raiser Maria Hsia. In that note she talks about the successful fund-raiser at the Buddhist Temple and asks the vice president for help in getting government funding for her to be part of the Project Citizenship initiative. Now, however did that note end up in the secret Gore Commission files? More to come.
This column was researched with the assistance of John B. Roberts II who first reported many of these facts in the American Spectator.
E-mail: tonyblankley@erols.com
Copyright © 2001 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
Can be found on the web here
Here's the last article I posted. And someone needs to go Googling and pull up the "Feb. 4, 1997, CAPITOL HILL HEARING OF THE SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE." The subject is: "AIRPORT AND AIRWAY TRUST FUND" and it was chaired by Sen. Wm. Roth (R-De). It's much too long for me to post here, but it has some VERY interesting "explanations" from some guy at Treasury Dept on what happened to that $1.2 billion that disappeared due to an "accounting error." Sen. Graham and others had some good questions and sounded really skeptical.
Someone other than me needs to read it to see if it's possible the the "missing" money went into the airline's pockets (and consequently into the Gore/DNC campaign).
Here's the article from Thread 1:
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
Journal of Commerce
February 24, 1997
Monday SPECIAL REPORT; Pg. 4
News & Views
Ira Rosenfeld(snip)
OUR COVER STORY this month is about the threat of terrorism in the sky. The White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security this month made its final recommendations to President Clinton.
Among the most controversial is the proposed use of automated passenger profiles to help keep would-be terrorists off commercial airliners.
Many of the proposals already are being implemented at the nation's airlines and airports.
Overall, the commission called for a major upgrade of Federal Aviation Administration safety and security measures in an effort to reduce the rate of airplane accidents by ""a factor of five'' in the next 10 years.
While the risk of dying in a plane crash remains low, a projection by Boeing Co. showed that unless the global accident rate is reduced, an airliner will crash somewhere on Earth nearly every week by 2015.
Mr. Gore said at the commission's final meeting that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will change its aviation programs to focus on safety research.
A cost estimate for implementing all of the committee's recommendations was not immediately available, but the commission did urge that cost not be the only basis for deciding whether to put new safety rules into effect.
Sometimes a safety rule should go ahead even when the benefits cannot be easily measured, the commissioners said.
Automated profiles, bomb-sniffing dogs and better training of security officers were among the commission's earlier recommendations.
Automated profiling involves using computers to, among other things, scan the travel history and possible criminal pasts of passengers to identify potential terrorists. Civil libertarians already are lining up in opposition to the plan.
THE FREE RIDE IS OVER. The House Ways and Means Committee, following the Senate Finance Committee, has passed a bill to reinstate a package of expired aviation taxes.
Money from the tax is used to pay for airport and air traffic control system improvements through the Airport and Airways Trust Fund. The bill extends through Sept. 30 a 10 percent tax on commercial airline tickets, a $6- a-ticket tax on international departures, a 6.25 percent tax on domestic air cargo and excise charges on noncommercial aviation fuel. These taxes bring roughly $20 million daily into the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, which finances airport modernization.
Several major airlines were hoping to replace the tax with user fees.
The law imposing the tax expired at the end of last year, and officials argue that the fund would shortly run out of money unless Congress acts.
Last week, the Treasury Department conceded it made an accounting error that effectively reduced the trust fund by $1.2 billion.
The bill gives the Treasury Department authority to transfer funds to fix the accounting problem.
Now if only you could fix your own tax errors that easily.(snip)
Where did that "$1.2 billion" go?
Here's the last article I posted. And someone needs to go Googling and pull up the "Feb. 4, 1997, CAPITOL HILL HEARING OF THE SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE." The subject is: "AIRPORT AND AIRWAY TRUST FUND" and it was chaired by Sen. Wm. Roth (R-De). It's much too long for me to post here, but it has some VERY interesting "explanations" from some guy at Treasury Dept on what happened to that $1.2 billion that disappeared due to an "accounting error." Sen. Graham and others had some good questions and sounded really skeptical.
Someone other than me needs to read it to see if it's possible the the "missing" money went into the airline's pockets (and consequently into the Gore/DNC campaign).
Here's the article from Thread 1:
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
Journal of Commerce
February 24, 1997
Monday SPECIAL REPORT; Pg. 4
News & Views
Ira Rosenfeld(snip)
OUR COVER STORY this month is about the threat of terrorism in the sky. The White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security this month made its final recommendations to President Clinton.
Among the most controversial is the proposed use of automated passenger profiles to help keep would-be terrorists off commercial airliners.
Many of the proposals already are being implemented at the nation's airlines and airports.
Overall, the commission called for a major upgrade of Federal Aviation Administration safety and security measures in an effort to reduce the rate of airplane accidents by ""a factor of five'' in the next 10 years.
While the risk of dying in a plane crash remains low, a projection by Boeing Co. showed that unless the global accident rate is reduced, an airliner will crash somewhere on Earth nearly every week by 2015.
Mr. Gore said at the commission's final meeting that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will change its aviation programs to focus on safety research.
A cost estimate for implementing all of the committee's recommendations was not immediately available, but the commission did urge that cost not be the only basis for deciding whether to put new safety rules into effect.
Sometimes a safety rule should go ahead even when the benefits cannot be easily measured, the commissioners said.
Automated profiles, bomb-sniffing dogs and better training of security officers were among the commission's earlier recommendations.
Automated profiling involves using computers to, among other things, scan the travel history and possible criminal pasts of passengers to identify potential terrorists. Civil libertarians already are lining up in opposition to the plan.
THE FREE RIDE IS OVER. The House Ways and Means Committee, following the Senate Finance Committee, has passed a bill to reinstate a package of expired aviation taxes.
Money from the tax is used to pay for airport and air traffic control system improvements through the Airport and Airways Trust Fund. The bill extends through Sept. 30 a 10 percent tax on commercial airline tickets, a $6- a-ticket tax on international departures, a 6.25 percent tax on domestic air cargo and excise charges on noncommercial aviation fuel. These taxes bring roughly $20 million daily into the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, which finances airport modernization.
Several major airlines were hoping to replace the tax with user fees.
The law imposing the tax expired at the end of last year, and officials argue that the fund would shortly run out of money unless Congress acts.
Last week, the Treasury Department conceded it made an accounting error that effectively reduced the trust fund by $1.2 billion.
The bill gives the Treasury Department authority to transfer funds to fix the accounting problem.
Now if only you could fix your own tax errors that easily.(snip)
Where did that "$1.2 billion" go?
Here's the last article I posted. And someone needs to go Googling and pull up the "Feb. 4, 1997, CAPITOL HILL HEARING OF THE SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE." The subject is: "AIRPORT AND AIRWAY TRUST FUND" and it was chaired by Sen. Wm. Roth (R-De). It's much too long for me to post here, but it has some VERY interesting "explanations" from some guy at Treasury Dept on what happened to that $1.2 billion that disappeared due to an "accounting error." Sen. Graham and others had some good questions and sounded really skeptical.
Someone other than me needs to read it to see if it's possible the the "missing" money went into the airline's pockets (and consequently into the Gore/DNC campaign).
Here's the article from Thread 1:
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
Journal of Commerce
February 24, 1997
Monday SPECIAL REPORT; Pg. 4
News & Views
Ira Rosenfeld(snip)
OUR COVER STORY this month is about the threat of terrorism in the sky. The White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security this month made its final recommendations to President Clinton.
Among the most controversial is the proposed use of automated passenger profiles to help keep would-be terrorists off commercial airliners.
Many of the proposals already are being implemented at the nation's airlines and airports.
Overall, the commission called for a major upgrade of Federal Aviation Administration safety and security measures in an effort to reduce the rate of airplane accidents by ""a factor of five'' in the next 10 years.
While the risk of dying in a plane crash remains low, a projection by Boeing Co. showed that unless the global accident rate is reduced, an airliner will crash somewhere on Earth nearly every week by 2015.
Mr. Gore said at the commission's final meeting that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will change its aviation programs to focus on safety research.
A cost estimate for implementing all of the committee's recommendations was not immediately available, but the commission did urge that cost not be the only basis for deciding whether to put new safety rules into effect.
Sometimes a safety rule should go ahead even when the benefits cannot be easily measured, the commissioners said.
Automated profiles, bomb-sniffing dogs and better training of security officers were among the commission's earlier recommendations.
Automated profiling involves using computers to, among other things, scan the travel history and possible criminal pasts of passengers to identify potential terrorists. Civil libertarians already are lining up in opposition to the plan.
THE FREE RIDE IS OVER. The House Ways and Means Committee, following the Senate Finance Committee, has passed a bill to reinstate a package of expired aviation taxes.
Money from the tax is used to pay for airport and air traffic control system improvements through the Airport and Airways Trust Fund. The bill extends through Sept. 30 a 10 percent tax on commercial airline tickets, a $6- a-ticket tax on international departures, a 6.25 percent tax on domestic air cargo and excise charges on noncommercial aviation fuel. These taxes bring roughly $20 million daily into the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, which finances airport modernization.
Several major airlines were hoping to replace the tax with user fees.
The law imposing the tax expired at the end of last year, and officials argue that the fund would shortly run out of money unless Congress acts.
Last week, the Treasury Department conceded it made an accounting error that effectively reduced the trust fund by $1.2 billion.
The bill gives the Treasury Department authority to transfer funds to fix the accounting problem.
Now if only you could fix your own tax errors that easily.(snip)
Where did that "$1.2 billion" go?