Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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The Daley Show

Monday, June 19, 2000

Friday morning, Mullings pointed out that the anti-labor activities of Commerce Secretary and soon-to-be Gore campaign chairman Bill Daley might cause trouble. An AP report by Sandra Sobieraj filed Friday night led:
"In frantic fence mending, Al Gore met Friday with top labor leaders
while aides reached out to local unions nationwide�

    "Privately, Democrats close to Gore said his team has acknowledged
     the big mistake of not consulting with labor leaders before word
     leaked on Thursday that Daley would take over the helm of Gore's
     presidential campaign�"

Ron Brownstein, in his analysis of the latest LA Times poll (which has George W. Bush with a 10 point lead, 50% - 40%) points to more Gore woes:
    "Adding to the vice president's worries is a slow, but unmistakable,
     darkening of the nation's mood since earlier this year. In
     January, 53% of voters said they considered the country on
     the right track � the share of voters who say the country is
     moving in the right direction has dipped to 43%, while 46%
     say it's on the wrong track."

Gore is spending two weeks focusing on the economy during his "peace and prosperity tour." If people think the boom is beginning to end, asking them "Are you better off now than you were eight years ago?" as he is now doing, may indeed more closely tie Gore to the economy, but it is a tie he may soon come to regret.

Amazingly, those Los Alamos Hard Drives, containing extremely sensitive nuclear secrets were found behind a Xerox machine in a location which had been searched twice. The area in which the drives are kept is known as the "X Division." I see a new Fox Network spin-off on the horizon.

Obviously, the perp didn't understand Rule Number One of computer espionage: You cannot copy a hard drive by using a Xerox machine.

On "Meet" and "This Week" yesterday, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson listed all the clearances needed to get into the X Division vault: A Background check, passwords, a badge, fingerprint scans. Obviously he missed one: "Key Operator" The Key Operator has to get in whenever he or she wants or who replaces the toner?

Mystery solved. Arrest the Key Operator. Where do we go to collect the reward money?

What really disappeared was any realistic chance of Bill Richardson being the Vice Presidential nominee. There is a Reuters photo of Richardson in which he may be answering the question "what is the number of chances in a million you will be the Vice Presidential nominee."

Bill Richardson, Bill Clinton, Bill Daley. Like millions of wives around the country, Tipper Gore has a familiar complaint: Bills, Bills, Bills.

It was somehow reassuring, on Saturday morning, to hear Tiger Woods sound exactly like a 24-year-old. When he hooked his shot into the rocks on 18 at Pebble Beach, Tiger let fly a string of bad words worthy of, well, worthy of a 24-year old. He has assumed an enormous amount of responsibility for his race and his game. Sometimes Tiger just has to act his age - not mine.

The future is oft foretold, if you just know where to look. Relative-in-law John Shreve e-mailed a note from yesterday's Marietta (Ohio) Times' "25 years ago" column: "The 1975 King Chicken of the 4-H Chicken Barbecue is Rich Galen of Marietta."

I forget now what the "King Chicken" competition was all about, but I do remember it was a pretty big deal because a 4-H barbecue in a rural county was, and remains, a big deal.

== Sap Alert ==

Yesterday being Father's Day, The Lad was in for the weekend, and took off shortly after noon to return to his Bush for President duties. If you have kids who have not yet gone off to college or wherever, just wait.

"A dragon lives forever but not so little boys
Painted wings and giant's rings make way for other toys.
One gray night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more
And Puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar."

That stanza used to make me sob. Now, I only have to wipe my eyes.

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