Who's Who - prospective vice presidential running mates - Brief Article

Washington Monthly, June, 2000 by Susan Threadgill

According to The Hill's "Open Secrets" column, Sen. Bob Graham removed himself from Al Gore's vice presidential list when he accused Bill Clinton of lying by promising Graham that the feds would not use a night-time raid to snatch Elian Gonzalez. (For other Democratic vice-presidential possibilities, see page 8 of this issue.) On the Republican side, Sen. Fred Thompson is said to have hurt his vice-presidential chances when his name was linked romantically to that of Margaret Carlson. The Time columnist and "Capital Gang" regular is reportedly too liberal for George W. Bush. Thompson's standing was not enhanced when gossips said he was simultaneously involved with another woman.

Dick Cheney, who served as secretary of defense under Daddy Bush and White House chief of staff under Gerald Ford, is leading W.'s vice-presidential search. Former Secretary of State Warren Christopher is playing the same role for Al Gore. Christopher did it for Bill Clinton in 1992, offering the job first to another senator and then, when he turned it down, to Gore.

We may have done George W. Bush an injustice when we suggested (see "Who's Who," April 2000) that he was attracted to the Gin and Tonic society at Yale because of his proclivity for partying. A Yalie of that era tells us that Gin and Tonic was one of a number of alternative societies formed in rebellion against the elite networking that Skull and Bones and other traditional secret societies represented. The name, he explains, was intended as a parody, as was that of another alternative society called Crotch and Armpit.

Al Gore is an exercise freak. "He travels with a set of dumbbells that are so heavy a 6-foot-7-inch advance man has trouble lugging the canvas bag they are packed in," reports Bob Davis of the Wall Street Journal. "The Secret Service sometimes cordons off a hotel's gym so Gore can work out alone. Other times the vice president asks that his hotel room have a treadmill and a weight bench?' All of this and his tight clothes, Republicans say, is to appeal to female voters. "The biggest swing vote is women," GOP strategist Scott Reed told the Journal. "If Gore has to wear t-shirts, he'll do it." Some in the Gore camp say that their candidate is just a "regular guy who is clueless about his appearance," but one aide compares him to Teddy Roosevelt, "who posed barrel-chested in photos to project virility and vitality."

Steve Largent, the former pro football star who is now a Republican congressman from Oklahoma, recently compared the tax code to a wife. Speaking on the floor of the House, Largent said, "What we're saying is the tax code is like a wife. It's so ugly, you know you can do better."

Bill Clinton has been poking fun at himself recently. In case you haven't heard the latest round of jokes, at the radio and television correspondents' dinner, he said his favorite slogan for the Al Gore campaign was "Al Gore--because there's a 22nd Amendment." Then at the White House correspondents' dinner in late April, he told the crowd, "I'm not concerned with my memoirs--I'm concerned with my resume. I've been getting a lot of tips on how to write it, mostly from my staff. They really seem to be up on this stuff. They tell me I have to use the active voice. You know, things like: `Commanded U.S. armed forces,' `Ordered air strikes,' `Served three terms as president.'" [Pause.] "Everybody embellishes a little."

What else? "Designed, built and painted bridge to 21st Century," Clinton continued. "Supervised vice president's invention of the Internet" And finally: "Generated, attracted, heightened, and maintained controversy."

Who's creating this material? We hear it's a speechwriter named Mark Katz.

What kind of fellow is Al Gore's foreign policy advisor, Leon Fuerth? He has a passion for anonymity--he says his goal is to be "nameless, faceless, and odorless." He is definitely pro-Israel. "During Mr. Gore's unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for president," writes Elaine Sciolino of The New York Times, "Mr. Fuerth helped him formulate an uncritical pro-Israeli line." He is a hawk and usually urges the hard line, as when he advised Gore in 1991 to break with fellow Democrats to support the Gulf War His political sense is not keen--he told Gore it was okay attend that fundraising luncheon in a Buddhist temple. But Gore likes him--a lot. Even though he has a rule against naming his future White House advisers, he told Sciolino, "If I were to break that rule for anybody, it would be for Leon."

Dana Milbank of The Washington Post may have discovered the secret of George W. Bushspeak. There's a part of the brain called Broca's area that Milbank says "directs the production of clear and intelligible speech." The wires between the Broca's area of the governor's brain and his mouth may be twisted or crossed or perhaps both. Whatever the reason, it is clear that Bush's Broca's area is not getting its message across in the intended form. Thus "tariffs and barriers" becomes "terriers and bariffs," "missile launches" turns into "mential losses," "viable" out "vile," and "balkanize" is transformed into "vulcanize." Bush aides aren't worried. Spokeswoman Mindy Tucker assures Milbank that it's all "because his brain works faster than his mouth does."