Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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It's Not Going That Well

Monday, May 8, 2000

The campaign of Al Gore is not going that well, just now. He has successfully trapped himself in a "me-too" mode on the all-important education issue and he has turned his back on reality when it comes to a modernization of the Social Security system.

Last week Mullings suggested it would not take more than a couple of days for Gore to pronounce the Bush-Kerrey-Moynihan Social Security program "risky;" a "scheme" which will lead to its "bankruptcy." I was right. At an AFL-CIO meeting in New Jersey, Gore was stalwart in defending his position that there no changes necessary to a system which is, ironically, about 65 years old.

Here's an honest suggestion for a Gore campaign slogan: "Read My Lips: No New Thinking."

When a lobbyist for the NRA - not Bush, but a lobbyist - says the NRA will, in effect, have an office in a Bush White House, there is national media apoplexy. Even though Bush treated it as nothing more than the self-puffery for which lobbyists in Your Nation's Capital have long been known.

But when a candidate for the Presidency - in this case Al Gore - promises a special interest group - in this case the AFL-CIO - that he will (according to Ron Fournier's AP piece) "carry labor's banner in the White House" there is no similar outcry.

Yet another growing problem for Al Gore: An AP story over the weekend carried the headline: "TVA Sues EPA Over Pollution Rules." The Tennessee Valley Authority, which Gore has treated as a taxpayer-funded employment agency for Gore loyalists, is suing the Environmental Protection Agency - which Gore more or less invented - over tougher air pollution standards from its coal-fired plants.

Reporters and Environmental groups should get an answer from Gore as to whether he supports the TVA's position that complying with the rules will force electricity rates to eight million people in rural areas to rise as much as 14 percent. Or does he support the federal agency charged with promulgating those rules?

Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, according to an AP story by Dave Espo last week, has arrived at a strategy which will all but guarantee the GOP will maintain control of the House in the fall. Hastert has determined there will be votes on tax cut measures, on HMO reform, on a Medicare drug benefit, and on minimum wage.

Why is this helpful? Because Minority Leaders Dick Gephardt cannot afford to have the Republican-controlled House seen by the public as proceeding on a steady course making progress on important legislative issues. Gephardt needs confrontation and gridlock. But, Hastert is not a confrontation-and-gridlock kind of guy.

So Hillary and Bill showed up in, of all places, Arkansas yesterday to raise money for her race for U.S. Senator from New York. Forget the cheap jokes about Arkansans donating money for a career move which would guarantee she would never darken their state line again. I was more interested in the President's remark about helping Hillary prepare for her announcement speech.

Clinton said, "I practically beat her up time and time again working on the announcement speech because an election is like a job interview �" I am very, very patiently sitting here awaiting the howls of outrage from women's groups demanding an apology from Clinton for using the imagery of beating his wife.

Imagine the headlines if a Republican used a phrase like "I beat her up time and time again." Interesting, isn't it, that political correctness appears to have just the most indistinct whiff of partisan bias?

And, if an election really were just "like a job interview" he should have simply sent Hillary to visit with Bill Richardson and Vernon Jordan and avoided the speech altogether.

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Copyright © 2000 Richard A. Galen

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