Posted on 06/14/2002 6:12:11 PM PDT by kattracks
Former Vice President Al Gore did not return a bust of Abraham Lincoln that he had "inadvertently" taken from the White House until Vice President Dick Cheney inquired about the missing item six months after taking office, a General Accounting Office report on the incident reveals.
The GAO report on the episode was part of the investigation into allegations that Clinton-Gore staff vandalized the White House before turning it over to the Bush administration on Jan. 20, 2001.
The investigation concluded that the former vice president kept the priceless White House sculpture until July 2001, when he was challenged by an unnamed Cheney counsel.
The GAO said:
"Regarding a Lincoln bust that two EOP staff told us was missing, but was subsequently returned, a former employee who also worked in the former vice president's transition office provided us with a copy of a July 6, 2001, letter that he received from the counsel to Vice President Cheney asking about the missing item.
"The former employee said that, after receiving the letter, he located the bust at former Vice President Gore's personal residence and that he returned it to the White House on July 11, 2001.
"The former employee also provided us with a July 11, 2001, letter to the counsel to the vice president, in which he wrote that 'it appears that the bust was inadvertently packed with the personal effects of Vice President Gore.' The former counsel to the former vice president told us that Mr. Gore did not pack his own items in his office at the end of the administration," the GAO concluded.
To read the GAO report on Gore's Lincoln bust, go to: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02360.pdf ("Allegations of Damage During the 2001 Presidential Transition," page 47.)
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Al Gore
Bush Administration
Clinton Scandals
Clinton, we eventually found out everything that he was -- a self-absorbed liar, a cheat, a thief, an abuser of power and unrepentant womanizer, probably even a rapist. Oh, and a totally incompetent president, besides. One who cared little for national security issues.
But, if anything, the Gore candidacy demonstrated something even worse. I've been old enough to follow presidential campaigns since 1952. Without a doubt, Albert Gore was the densest, most obtuse person who has undertaken to run for the office -- much less become the nominee of a major party.
It is not difficult to see how he barely got by grade-wise at Yale (and the grades were likely gifts) and, then, flunked out of Vanderbilt. It's than IQ...he just doesn't seem to know how to do things/get things done/how things work, etc.
In retrospect, it was stunning to see him taken seriously as a candidate for the most powerful office in the world. Algore was incapable of managing a convenience store, gas station, Dairy Queen, you name it. Had Bill Clinton not named him as his VP, Gore would never have achieved nomination.
At least, I'd like to think so.
ALGORE. Slumlord,liar and thief. Thank God this poltroon doesn't occupy The White House.
LOL!!! You know there's just so many levels to this it's not funny.
If the busts were of Stalin, Mao and Castro he would have known who they were right off.
And you're right. Gore is a buffoon.
Buffoon! Good word.
The third bust was, I believe, Benjamin Franklin.
Have you ever been to Monticello? It is a wonderful place.
When did Gore get busted? I missed that. But it's about time.
YES!
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