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The Forsyth County News
Opinion
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Al Gore owed no debt
to Joe Lieberman
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Leave it to Al Gore to screw up
his big day.
He wanted to make a big
splash by endorsing Howard
Dean. And he did. But he made
almost as big a splash by stiff
ing Joe Lieberman.
Joe Lieberman as a presi
dential candidate has not been
doing that well this year. But
Joe Lieberman as a victim was
a triumph last week. There
were press conferences! TV
interviews! Front page stories!
It seems that before the
endorsement story leaked, Al
Gore did not call Joe
Lieberman, his former running
mate, to tell him that Gore was
going to endorse Dean.
Ever since, Lieberman has
been going from TV network
to TV network boo-hooing this
terrible snub. But he is also
keeping a stiff upper lip and
claiming that this awful slight
has revitalized his campaign.
But why, exactly, did Gore
owe Lieberman a call?
First and this very obvi
ous point keeps getting over
looked Gore did not control
the leaking of the story.
The endorsement was not
supposed to be made public
until Tuesday morning (Dec.
9), which would have given
Gore time to call Lieberman on
Monday night. According to
one account. Gore was plan
ning to call all the other candi
dates at 11 p.m. Monday.
Instead, the story broke
Monday afternoon, before
Gore could call anybody. But
is that Gore’s fault?
Second, what does Al Gore
really owe Joe Lieberman?
Ever since the last presiden
tial election, Lieberman has
been attacking the central
theme of the Gore-Lieberman
2000 campaign, which was
“people vs. the powerful.”
Lieberman has gone on TV
and said the theme was mis
guided because it was “not
expressive of the fiscally
responsible pro-growth, grow
the-middle-class campaign we
were running.” (During the
campaign itself, Lieberman
made no public complaints
about the theme. It was only
after he lost that he found it
wanting.)
In response. Gore argued in
an op-ed piece in The New
York Times: “Standing up for
the people, not the powerful,
was the right choice in 2000.
In fact, it is the ground of the
Democratic Party’s being, our
On your payroll
CITY COUNCIL
Mayor, H. Ford Gravitt
P.O. Box 3177, Cumming, GA 30028; (770) 887-4342
Mayor Pro-Tern, Lewis Ledbetter
205 Mountain Brook Dr., Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 887-3019
Ralph Perry
1420 Pilgrim Rd., Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 887-7474
Quincy Holton
103 Hickory Ridge Dr., Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 887-5279
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705 Pine Lake Dr., Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 887-4332
John Pugh
10813th St., Cumming, GA 30040; (770) 887-3342
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
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(770) 886-7937; office, (770) 886-2810
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4840 Chesterfield Court, Suwanee, GA 30024
(404) 392-6983; office, (770) 886-2809
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6130 Polo Club Dr., Cumming, GA 30040
(770) 886-9226; (770) 886-2807
MarcieKreager,Post4
9810 Kings Rd., Gainesville, GA 30506
office, (770) 886-2806
EddieTaylor,Posts
4195 Morningside Dr., Cumming, GA 30041
(770)886-2802
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meaning and our mission.”
So what does Gore owe
Lieberman now? Lieberman
attacks the very campaign he
was part of, and he still expects
a sympathy call from Gore?
But wait, the Lieberman
camp argues, Joe held off on
his own campaign plans until
Gore decided not to run, there
by setting back Lieberman’s
fund-raising and campaign
efforts this year.
Very true. But who asked
him to? Gore didn’t.
If you want to run for presi
dent, you run for president.
You don’t go around telling
people that you are your own
second choice.
Having said all this, now let
me say that I am sure Gore
couldn’t care less about the
feelings of the other candi
dates. I am also sure that call
ing them was one of the last
things on his mind.
Gore often doesn’t care
about the feelings of others
very much. He cares very
deeply about humanity. But
caring about specific human
beings is an entirely different
story.
His former aides can give
example after example. But let
me give you one: At the end of
2002, Gore summoned a gag
gle of reporters to Los Angeles,
where he was on a book tour,
to give them individual inter
views. Speculation was ram
pant that Gore would run for
president again, and that is
why the reporters were inter
ested.
As it turned out, however, it
was all just a scam to promote
his book. Gore had no inten
tion of running. After the scam
became apparent, I asked a for
mer Gore aide whether Gore
felt any guilt at making all
those reporters schlep out to
Los Angeles to do stories about
a campaign that he knew was
never going to take place.
The former aide laughed.
“Gore doesn’t think about
other people in terms of their
feelings,” he said. “Not at that
level.”
Roger Simon is a nationally
syndicated columnist. He can be
e-mailed at Writeßoger
@aol.com.
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Dean’s loose lips a concern for Democrats
WASHINGTON lt was
bad enough when Howard
Dean, interviewed on National
Public Radio Dec. 1, spread a
conspiracy theory that George
W. Bush ignored Saudi Arabian
warnings of the 9/11 terrorist
attacks. It was worse Dec. 7 on
“Fox News Sunday,” when the
Democratic presidential front
runner neither apologized nor
repudiated himself for passing
along this urban legend.
None of Dean’s frantic
opponents for the nomination
immediately took him to task,
not wanting to defend the hated
Republican president. A week
later, however, they contemplat
ed whether the doctor posed too
easy a general election target
for President Bush. Al Gore’s
surprise endorsement boosts
Dean among Democrats but
surely does not make him more
electable.
A half-hour after Dean
alarmed party regulars over tel
evision Dec. 7, Sen. Hillary
Rodham Clinton on NBC titil
lated worried Democrats by
hesitating at closing the door
for 2004. Although her
prospects of being nominated
for president remain minimal,
normally sober Democrats are
looking toward Mrs. Clinton in
2004 because of apprehension
about what Dean could do to
the party.
Unlike George McGovern
in 1972, Dean’s core problem is
not ideological. It is loose lips:
fabricating the story of a patient
NATIONAL LEGISLATORS
< U.S. Sen. Zell Miller
Russell Senate Office Building, Room C-3
Washington, D.C. 20510
BRk . jpj
(202) 224-3643; Fax: (202) 228-2090
U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss >
1019 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202)224-3521
< U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, 10th District
2437 Rayburn House Office Building,
Washington, D.C. 20515
Gainesville: RO. Box 1015, Gainesville, GA 30503
Gainesville, (770) 535-2592; Washington: (202) 225-
5211; Fax: (202) 225-8272
k 41
U.S. Rep. John Linder, 7th District >
1727 Longworth House Office Building,
Washington, D.C. 20515-1011
Washington: (202) 225-4272; Fax: (202) 225-4696
STATE LEGISLATORS
■■
< Sen. David Shafer, 48th District
109 State Capitol
Atlanta, GA 30334
(404)651-7738
Sen. Casey Cagle, 49th District >
421 State Capitol, Atlanta, GA 30334
Telephone: (404) 656-6578; (fax) (404)
651-6768
< Sen. Dan Moody, 27th District
(770) 495-3127;
Office (404) 463-8055
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Robert
Novak
I
impregnated by her father,
seeking support from pickup
truck drivers with Confederate
flags, and seemingly exulting in
his draft deferment for a bad
back. Nothing so worries old
style Democratic politicians,
however, as proclaiming the
apocryphal warning from Saudi
Arabia.
In his Dec. 1 interview on
NPR’s “The Diane Rehm
Show,” Dean was asked about
allegations that President Bush
is suppressing information that
he was warned about the 9/11
terrorist attacks. “The most
interesting theory that I have
heard so far . . . ,” Dean
responded, “is that he was
warned ahead of time by the
Saudis.” This received scant
media attention (except for
Washington Post columnist
Charles Krauthammer), but
Democratic politicians shud
dered.
Dean was given a chance to
back off six days later by Chris
Wallace, debuting as “Fox
News Sunday’s” moderator. “I
don’t believe that,” the candi
date said, then added: “But we
don’t know, and it’d be a nice
thing to know.” He concluded:
“Because the president won’t
give information to the Kean
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS —Thursday, December 18,2003
Commission, we really don’t
know what the explanation is.”
After playing to Bush-haters
who listen to National Public
Radio, Dean repeated the same
canard to Fox’s Sunday morn
ing mainstream viewers.
None of Dean’s opponents
raised the issue during last
week’s debate in Durham,
N.H., but moderator Scott
Spradling of WMUR TV did.
Dean still defended publicizing
what he now called a “crazy”
theory.
Where did Dean pick it up?
A Dean spokesman told this
column it was “out there.” A
rival Democratic candidate’s
campaign suspected it came
from “some blog.” The Russian
newspaper Pravda published
reports that Jordan’s and
Morocco’s intelligence not
Saudi Arabia’s gave the CIA
advance knowledge. The World
Socialists circulated a story that
the Saudi royal family knew of
the attack in advance.
Somehow, the urban legend
penetrated Dean’s mind.
“It’s McCarthyism in
reverse,” one 35-year
Democratic political veteran
told me. “Dean doesn’t under
stand that he's accusing Bush
of something worse than an
impeachable offense. It’s trea
son.” He and several other
Democrats that I contacted all
expressed the fear that Bush’s
political operatives will shred
an opposing presidential candi
date that undisciplined.
Sen. Renee Unterman, 45th District >
(770) 466-1507;
Office (404) 463-1368
< Rep. Tom Knox, 14th District
Legislative Office Building, Room 504
18 Capitol Square, Atlanta, GA 30334
(404) 656-0188, or (770) 887-0400, law office
Rep. Jan Jones, 38th District >
412 Legislative Office Building,
Atlanta GA 30334
(404) 656-0137
Rep. Jack Murphy, 14th District
Legislative office Building,
Room 612, Atlanta GA 30334
(404) 656-0325; (770) 781-9319, home
BOARD OF EDUCATION
<
I J
k * -
Ann Crow
96 Barker Rd., Cumming, GA 30040
(770) 887-9640; acrow@forsyth.kl2.ga.us
Paul Kreager
9810 Kings Rd., Gainesville, GA 30506
(770) 889-9971; pkreager@fbrsyth.kl2.ga.us
Chairman Nancy Roche
7840 Chestnut Hill Rd., Cumming, GA 30041
(770) 889-0229; nroche@fbrsyth.kl2.ga.us
Rebecca K. Dowell
2030 Commonwealth Place, Cumming, GA 30041
(770) 844-0830; rdowell@lbrsyth.kl2.gaus
Jeffrey Stephens
P.O. Box 169, Cumming, GA 30028
(770) 889-1470; jstephens@forsyth.kl2.ga.us
_
PAGE 9A
As worries about Dean’s
nomination rise inside the
Democratic establishment,
hopes of stopping him diminish
particularly after the Gore
endorsement. To slow Dean
even temporarily, Rep. Dick
Gephardt must stop him in the
lowa caucuses Jan. 19. That’s
why these worried Democrats
were stirred by Hillary Clinton
on “Meet the Press.”
After an impressive per
formance answering Tim
Russert’s policy questions, the
former first lady would not flat
ly promise to turn down a presi
dential draft. “The nomination
it’s not going to be offered
to me,” she insisted. “But if it
did happen?” asked Russert.
“You know, I have, lam ,”
she stammered. “I think the
door is opening a bit, Senator,”
Russert concluded. “Oh, no, it’s
not,” Clinton shot back. Finally,
when pressed to say she would
“never” accept the 2004 nomi
nation, she said, “I am not
accepting the nomination.”
That was ambivalent
enough to intrigue Democratic
worriers. It’s a slender reed, but
still reason for them to think
that Hillary Clinton might be
there if Howard Dean self
immolates by next summer.
They are thinking such
thoughts because their prospec
tive nominee is spinning wild
conspiracy theories.
Robert D. Novak is a
nationally syndicated columnist
and a television commentator.
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