Chris Lehane: DWI Story Cost Bush Popular Vote

NewsMax.com ^ | Wednesday June 19, 2002; 12:19 p.m. EDT | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[Jean S]

The eleventh hour campaign revelation that then-GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush had been arrested in Maine in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol gave then-Vice President Al Gore the boost he needed to win the popular vote in the 2000 presidential election, Gore's former campaign spokesman Chris Lehane admitted late Tuesday.

"Obviously, I think it did have an impact on the election," Lehane told WABC Radio's John Batchelor and Paul Alexander.

"It was a very close election. All of our internal polls show that it was literally a dead heat," the former top Goreman added. "I think there was a small percentage but a critical percentage of people who were literally themselves up in the air until the last 24 hours."

Lehane continued:

"And when the DWI story broke, for a lot of people who were on the fence trying to figure out which way to go, that sort of pushed them to towards Gore. They had real reservations about Bush's judgment and whether he was up to the job."

Lehane's comments underscored the importance of the all but forgotten DWI story, which many suspected was a Democrat dirty trick designed to throw Bush off balance during the final days of the campaign.

Instead, "Beer-gate," as media dubbed the Bush DWI story, undoubtedly caused Bush's slim nationwide lead to evaporate overnight and precipitated the 37-day Florida recount fiasco that still has Democrats grousing Gore was robbed.

As NewsMax reported at the time, there was ample reason to believe that the "Beer-gate" bombshell was a strategically timed leak that had Gore campaign fingerprints all over it.

Clearly somebody was pushing very hard to get the 24-year-old DWI story on the big media's radar screen; a story which had already been passed up by the Associated Press and had received glancing coverage by PBS weeks earlier.

"There is something of a mystery that has unfolded since we broke the story," reported Fox News Channel's Carl Cameron just four days before the election.

"And that is that part of the arrest record and the state of Maine's documentation of George Bush's driving record and arrest record in Maine was faxed to news agencies all over the country after we were on the air with it at 6 o'clock Eastern time."

Cameron said he had no idea who was behind the Bush DWI blast fax, but former Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson didn't have any doubts.

"If anybody doesn't believe that this came right out of Gore headquarters, you ought to sprinkle some Peter Pan twinkle dust on them," he told CNBC's Chris Matthews.

Newsweek's Howard Finemen said Democrats appeared ready to pounce on the Bush DWI report, with a prepared strategy to revive allegations about his involvement in "other drug related incidents." (See: Bush DUI Info Blast-Faxed Around the Country; Dems Ready to Pounce)

The next day Tom Connolly, a Bush-hating Gore delegate from Maine, told reporters that he had tried to fax court records of the DWI arrest to Gore campaign headquarters a week earlier.

But he claimed he gave up after just one try because the line was busy.

Instead, Connolly said, he gave his DWI documentation to Fox News Portland Maine affiliate WPXT, where reporter Erin Fehlau broke the news locally.

There it remained until someone blast faxed the Bush court documents into every newsroom in America. (See: Beer-gate Alibi Unravels for Gore Dirty Trickster)

The question of who was behind the blast fax effort remains a mystery, but whoever it was succeeded in turning the 2000 election into a Constitutional crisis

Now that Chris Lehane has acknowledged that "Beer-gate" was key to Gore winning the popular vote, perhaps it's time for GOP to start crying, "We was robbed!"

[Ditter]

How can a rational thinking person be so unsure of which party they will support in the last 2 days of a huge national campaign, that they will switch their vote over something this small ??????

[Let's Roll]

Getting it out early is key. I know many liberals who couldn't believe it was even an issue so many years after the fact - those who practice an anything goes lifestyle find that pretty tame stuff.

IMO with more time to reflect that would have been the reaction of most undecideds but with only a few days left they let their emotions effect their vote.

[Howlin]

No, you posted two pieces of crap with specious articles. Hardly mainstream.

And yes, you did MENTION Ann Coutler saying "So Bush had a DUI 24 years ago, stole a hotel wreath as a fraternity prank and got rowdy at a Yale-Princeton football game in college? Fine" but you didn't produce a SOURCE for that quote, now, did you, which puts us in the position of having to decide whether YOU are a credible source or not, and judging from your other posts on this forum, I'd say you're here with ill will in your heart.

And if that is, in fact, from Coulter, can you not READ??? College pranks? A wreath and a football game?

Do you possibly consider those ARRESTS that warrant the kind of distain you posted in your original reply?

Shall we take a look into YOUR past life, or are you yet another perfect conservative come along to pass judgment on your fellow Republicans?

[Howlin]

IMO with more time to reflect that would have been the reaction of most undecideds but with only a few days left they let their emotions effect their vote.

Oh, don't forget to factor in the holier-than-thou conservatives who immediately decided Bush was the devil himself for that SIN. They didn't vote for him either.

[BlackRazor]

No source. This statement was based purely on my memory of personal observations and impressions at the time. I remember being upset with Bush at that time. As another poster indicated in Message 54, perhaps I was duped by the media coverage of the two campaigns. But I seem to remember Bush heading back to his ranch for a day off during the final weekend before the election. Meanwhile, I distinctly remember the coverage of Al Gore's pre-dawn rallies in Florida, etc, and how he was not getting any sleep, etc. I will try to find a confirming source this evening - I'll post if I find something.

[Howlin]

I'm not hiding from anything; do you see me deny it? You are the one who insinuated he should burn in hell for college pranks and a drunk driving ticket -- which is what that was back then, in case you don't know. It wasn't quite the big deal it is today.

[Howlin]

You are so right! It, of course, had NOTHING to do with the Gore campaign though. /sarcasm off.

[Howlin]

And I'll try to find something, too. I do seem to remember Bush going to the ranch, but I thought it was a week or so before. We'll both check to get the facts right, okay?

[Brookhaven]

GW Bush has a DWI from 3 decades ago and bottom feeders blast fax it?

Remember, the typical voter doesn't get very far past the headlines. The headlines were reading "Bush Arrested for DWI". Only if you took the time to read the story did you find out it was 30 years ago.

It was well known that Bush not only had a drinking problem, but that he was pretty wild (pary wise) earlier in his life. A DWI fit right in with that pattern. He had turned around his life and put all that behind him. The headline put doubts in some people's minds that he had really put all that behind him (because there was no time frame of when the DWI occurred in the headline.)

Had the Bush people put all that on the table early in the campaign, it would have been a non-issue.

[RedWhiteBlue]

That is exactly right -- there was NO arrest in the drunk driving incident. In 1976, the penalty was a ticket -- a moving violation.

[TC Rider]

Chris Lehane is a little puke.

And strangely enough, he is a little puke from Kennebunkport, Maine. Imagine that.

[TC Rider]

Tom Connolly.............

Oh Gawd, the hat, the hat, ...

I had managed to forget about that stupid damn hat.

Till now.

[Howlin]

I am simply saying that you FELL for the Democratic spin on this one; granted, Bush should have come forth with it sooner, but, IMO, he had a valid reason not to -- his daughters.

And in 1968, a DWI was NOT a serious charge.

And if it bothered you so much, you shouldn't have voted for him.

[TC Rider]

George W. Bush was responsible for the effect of that story. He should have 'fessed up MONTHS before. Anyone with a brain knew the Dems were looking for any dirt and would wait till the most opportune time to use it. They were the opposition....it was their job and they did it well.

My recollection is that it had come out in a long form PBS interview that Bush had done months before. I agree it's important to get it out, but Rove didn't need to wave a flag about it.

It really points out the lazyness of political reporters that the facts had to be shoved under their noses before they jumped on it.

[Howlin]

We are old, eh???.........LOL. Many of my friends got them in Chapel Hill!

[TC Rider]

The third arrest -- a fairly serious crime -- drunk driving.

Seriously? A fairly serious crime?

Not at the time in America. In fact, in the sixties you could drive drunk in New England, race off a bridge, watch your date drown, and not do anything about it till the next day. Lie about it, get off scott free and go on to become a leader in the Senate.

Bush was actually stopped for driving to slow. Let's not ascribe today polital correctness to events that happened 30 years ago.

BTW, welcome to FreeRepublic. If you are going to throw firebombs, be prepared to source them.

[TC Rider]

The Guardian? You forgot the part about the Bush family supporting the Nazis in WWII.

I'll give you the same comment I used to get for sourcing 'The American Spectator' on Dem sights.

"You can't be serious, they are all known Bush haters."

[CaptRon]

Chris Lehane gives this more credit than it deserves, probably because the idea sprang from his demented and atrophied little mind.

Most people I know recognized it for what it was. I don't believe it had any significant effect.