A rchive Date
[ 20-08-2000 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[Al Gore, the king of funny money
By R. CORT KIRKWOOD-- Ottawa Sun
August 20, 2000
Over the last week, Sen. Joe Lieberman, the man riding shotgun on the Gore presidential stagecoach, has been singing faithfully the praises of his driver. The two even prayed together before beginning their journey, Lieberman avers, a good sign considering what we learned about the wagonmaster.
This week, he and his Democrats were caught in yet another campaign money scandal. For some reason, Gore can't seem to stay out of fundraising trouble, and like his adolescent boss, who may be indicted for lying about the White Owl he shared with Monica Lewinsky, can't deliver a straight answer when he gets caught.
The latest trouble concerns Gore, the Democrats and a company called the Share Group. Based in Massachusetts, the company was run by a thief named Michael Ansara, convicted in 1997 of embezzling money from the Teamsters union and plowing it into the re-election effort of Teamster kingpin Ron Carey. The union claims Ansara and Share Group ripped off $3 million.
According to a Newsweek website report by Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, Gore and the Democrats have paid the Share Group more than $1 million. "Campaign finance records reviewed by Newsweek show that since last year, the Gore 2000 Presidential campaign paid The Share Group at least $154,000 in campaign funds for 'telemarketing services.'
"Records show that in 1999 and 2000, the Democratic National Committee also paid the company at least $512,000 (in consulting fees) ... and that as of June 30 of this year, the DNC still owed the company another $257,000." The Democratic Congressional and Senatorial campaign committees, Newsweek says, paid the firm at least $425,000 during the current campaign.
Using the firm wouldn't have been all that bad if the Democrats had been blissfully unaware of the Share Group's shady past. But the Democrats knew about the firm and hired it anyway after receiving "written assurances," Newsweek reports, that Share Group gave Ansara the boot.
Well, guess what: Either the Democrats are lying about the "written assurances," or Share Group lied to the Democrats about Ansara. A company official told Newsweek he still works for the company; his wife directs what used to be his controlling financial interest. The fundraising pros in the Gore campaign and Democrat Party, we are to believe, are shocked.
As if this revelation isn't bad enough for a pious vice-president so close to the Almighty (if you believe Lieberman) consider this: Gore campaign officials dissembled about their relationship with the company, just as they dissembled about the tenants living in squalour on Gore's estate when the news media discovered them.
According to Isikoff and Hosenball, "a Gore campaign official" said the "relationship ended in December, 1999," but the firm "started receiving funds from the Gore campaign in June, 1999 and continued to receive large checks until April of this year."
So the "relationship" didn't end, unless Gore and his apostles would argue sending "large checks" to a fundraising company does not constitute a "relationship." It's a relationship, Al.
For its part, the Democrat Party did not end its "relationship" until Wednesday, when it learned about Ansara the embezzler. You have to admire loyalty.
The Democrat nominee for president seems drawn to dirty money, then driven to lie about it. Indeed, the Gore-Democrat fundraising scandals and lies about them are endless: The Buddhist Temple and Maria Hsia, Johnny Chung, Red Chinese funny money, missing e-mail, "no controlling legal authority," fundraising calls on government property, too much iced tea forcing Gore to go pee-pee.
Gore picked Lieberman to help cleanse the party of the ugly stain left by eight years of Clintonian perversion and prevarication. But too much of Clinton has rubbed off on him.
As long as the Man From Carthage drives the party's team of horses, he'll keep them galloping straight through the mud.
Kirkwood writes on U.S. affairs for the Sun. Letters to the editor should be sent to oped@sunpub.com.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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