Al Gore Invented Pokemon
Wednesday, December 15, 1999
For yesterday's Special Debate Edition of Mullings click here:
- It's not as glamorous as you might think. I had a 7:30 am flight from Des Moines yesterday. I arrived at the airport about an hour early to find both Gary Bauer (his wife and two aides) and Orrin Hatch (one travel aide) already there for the commuter flight to Cincinnati.
- More on the Iowa debate. Someone counted four references to NJ Governor Christine Todd Whitman. One reporter asked me if I thought that would damage her. Damage? Being mentioned in a negative way by Gary Bauer might cause her to re-start her bid for the U.S. Senate.
- Follow me on this: John McCain challenged George W to promise that no soft money will be used in the Presidential campaign. McCain and Bill Bradley are meeting this week at the same spot in New Hampshire where Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton shook hands on a commission to study campaign finance reform. Assume Bradley and McCain shake hands and promise not to use soft money.
- Later this week Bradley and Gore debate again. Bradley will challenge Gore (who is also a public devotee of campaign finance reform) to refuse any use of soft money. Gore has to say yes or no.
- Here's the fun part: Gore's infamous "no controlling legal authority" excuse for making fund raising calls on an official phone was only valid because he was making phone calls to raise - soft money.
- More Gore: Al "I-Invented-Everything-Everywhere" Gore has gotten caught again, but without much public notice this time. Jim Lucier over at Prudential bought to my attention an article by Jodie T. Allen on the e-zine "Slate". The article pointed out that Gore has claimed to have written the Earned Income Tax Credit law. According to Allen's piece, Gore said "I was the author of that proposal. I wrote that" in response to a Bradley suggestion the EITC be expanded.
- One teeny, tiny problem: The Earned Income Tax Credit became law a year before Prime Time Al was even elected to the Congress.
- OK. I claim credit for a lot of things for which I deserve none, but this time I got it right. Months ago I said that a Hillary Rodham Clinton Rodham campaign for the US Senate would cause the Presidential Campaign of Al Gore trouble because he would have to respond to Hillary's statements. What happened this week? Hillary announces she is opposed to her husband's "Don't ask. Don't tell" policy toward gays in the military. Al Gore jumps on the issue. Bill Bradley jumps on Gore for shifting his position after seven years of silence.
- The other day I was going to write (facetiously) that Mullings is developing such a following that the word-of-the-day at www.wordsmith.org on Sunday was "Megillah" about which, I wore you out several weeks ago. I left it out for space reasons and it's a good thing. The next day's definition? "Flatulence."
- AP Headline Humor: "Hillary Clinton Grilled By Jews."
- Joseph Heller died the other day. His most famous book, "Catch-22" did not just produce a common phrase, it was a guidebook for the anti-authoritarian generation of which I am a dues-paying member.
- The Associated Press ran a story yesterday on how to spot counterfeit Pokemon cards. If you don't know about Pokemon, you don't have children, grand children, nieces, nephews, or neighbors between the ages of 4 through 13.
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