Got to admit, Gore's first choice passed me. Who was it?
Gore, or his campaign strategist Tony Coelho, needed someone who could relink the *Hillbilly Democrats* of Little Rock and Nashville with the Kennedy-wing old Dems of Boston and New York. And Coelho could tie in the Texas and Californis fundraisers, offering a near-unified front against the Republican challenger. All they needed from there was Chicago and the Midwest, with a face and name well-known in that region.
We know what Illinois Senator Dick Durbin thought on the subject. No, it wasn't him.
-archy-/-