Mullings A Political Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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Who is Them and Who is Us?

Wednesday, August 21, 2000

The latest iteration of Al "It's-In-His-Kiss" Gore is as the "Fightin'-Against-the-Man" man. The current rant is, "It all comes down to which side are you on," referring to a 1930's-style fight between workers and owners which doesn't seem to make a great deal of sense in the year 2000.

Two reasons why the Gore campaign can't sustain this line of attack: First, "Honest Joe" Lieberman decided he needed to tone down his boss' rhetoric in an interview with the Wall Street Journal's Bob Davis saying, "There is no rational reason why the markets should be adversely affected" by the policies Gore is espousing. In the next graf, Davis writes:
    "Sen. Lieberman's remarks came after a weekend of
    business bashing by Mr. Gore, who attacked the
    pharmaceuticals, insurance, oil, and health
    management industries�"

Second. Part of the settlement between communications giant Verizon and its New York area workers included the usual job security and overtime provisions but also includes - ta-da - STOCK OPTIONS!

Would Tom Joad have accepted stock options? I don't think so. For secret look at Al Gore's next speech, go here.

It is fairly obvious that this veer to the left is designed to be a sop to AFL-CIO president John Sweeney who has been hidden from view since the Gore campaign chose "Mr. NAFTA and China Trade Point Man" Bill Daley to be the campaign chairman. And whose choice of Joe "Mr. Insurance PAC Man" Lieberman gave every Democrat to the left of Sam Nunn heartburn.

On Monday, Mullings suggested there should be some apologies extended from those who immediately blamed Republicans for leaking the news of the federal grand jury on the Clinton/Lewinsky deal. We now know it was a Federal judge - a Democratic Federal judge - who did the leaking. Nevertheless no one has publicly backed down, much less apologized.

Barbara Comstock, ace research chief of the Republican National Committee, provided the following list:
    Gore Campaign Chairman Bill Daley
    Gore Campaign Spokesman Mark Fabiani
    Gore Spokesman Chris Lehane
    Gore Spokesman Doug Hattaway
    Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)
    Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill)
    House Majority Whip David Bonior (D-Mich)
    Former Democratic Governor of Texas, Ann Richards
    Sen. John Breaux (D-La)
    Democratic Consultant Mark Mellman
    CBS Anchor Dan "What's the Frequency, Kenneth" Rather

To read the quotes of each of these fair-minded people go here.

To read Rather's apology go - oh, nowhere.

Here's news you can use - if you're Pat Buchanan: Ross Perot has stepped down as the president and chief operating officer of his company, Perot Systems. He is remaining as chairman of the company but, hell, that's not a full time job for someone like ole' Ross.

Pat was released from the hospital over the weekend after gall bladder surgery. Wrong guy. If anyone has an excess of gall - it's Ross.

Here's the deal, Larry: The Federal Election Commission is deciding which Reform Party candidate for President should get the $12.6 million in federal funding. Don't be surprised to see Ross offer to buy out the Reform Party nominees - both of them - put up the money, and have a special convention to nominate himself.

And you thought Bill Clinton would retire the trophy as "The Politician We Want Most to Go Away Forever."

Here's a dot-com good-news-bad-news joke: AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Embattled health Web site drkoop.com, Inc. said on Tuesday it received $20 million in equity financing, a new management team and a reconfigured board [of directors] just a day after it posted weak earnings and said it was the subject of a U.S. regulatory investigation.

Speaking of post-convention bounces, Monday's Mullings had its biggest day ever in terms of visitors to its web site: Over 4,100 people used their company's bandwidth by going to the site. And that doesn't include the 127 times I hit the "Refresh" key.

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Copyright © 2000 Richard A. Galen

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