[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 137 (Friday, October 27, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11262-S11263]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                EMBELLISHMENTS BY VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I thought for the next few moments I would 
speak basically in response to my colleague from Nevada, who is here on 
the floor. He has taken the floor in the last two evenings to quote 
rather liberally and at length statements made by Republican 
Presidential candidate George W. Bush, and of course those statements 
stand in the Record as he has presented them. He quoted them verbatim, 
saying he believed it was necessary to demonstrate the policy positions 
of this Presidential candidate.
  I thought it would be appropriate to lay into the Record this evening 
similar quotes from Al Gore, the Presidential candidate for the 
Democrat Party, who on many occasions has made a variety of 
embellishments about certain facts. For the next few moments, I want to 
take this opportunity to read some of his quotes, which I think is 
appropriate as a comparative between the two Presidential candidates.
  I will start with a CNN quote on ``Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer,'' 
March 9, 1999. Vice President Al Gore, at that time, said:


[[Page S11263]]


       During my service in the United States Congress, I took the 
     initiative in creating the Internet.

  In the New York Times, December 1, 1999, he said:

       I found a little place in upstate New York called Love 
     Canal. I had the first hearing on that issue and Toone, 
     Tennessee.

  I assume he meant in Tone, Tennessee.

       But that was the one that started it all.

  I think that was the one where we knew the Vice President took credit 
for discovering Love Canal and acting on it.
  During a flight on Air Force One, Gore was chatting with reporters. 
This is what he said:

       He . . . spent two hours swapping opinions about movies and 
     telling stories about old chums like Eric Segal, who, Gore 
     said, used Al and Tipper as models for the uptight preppy and 
     his free-spirited girlfriend in ``Love story.''

  That is a quote out of Time magazine, December 15, 1997.
  This is from the first Presidential debate on October 3, 2000:

       I accompanied James Lee Witt down to Texas when the fires 
     broke out.

  Of course, he recanted that the next day, saying he really didn't do 
that. He was down there on the ground, but not with Mr. Witt, Director 
of FEMA.
  Then during the first Presidential debate on October 3, he said:

       They can't squeeze another desk in for her, so she has to 
     stand during class.

  Of course, immediately that school rejected that, saying that was 
simply not true. The first day of classes, her desk was not available, 
but the second day it was.
  On the NBC ``Today Show,'' January 24, 1997, he said:

       I did not know it was a fundraiser.

  Of course, we know what he is talking about because then in an FBI 
deposition transcript on May 23, 1997, he said:

       I didn't realize it was in a Buddhist temple.

  Those are actual quotes from a man who wants to be President of the 
United States.
  He went on to say this in the Washington Post on September 24, 2000, 
talking about the Strategic Oil Reserve which was established in 1975, 
2 years before Al Gore was elected to Congress:

       I've been a part of the discussion on the Strategic Oil 
     Reserve since the days when it was first established.

  In reference to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, he said:

       I've worked on this for 20 years because, unless we get 
     this one right, nothing else matters.

  That was on the Al Gore 2000 web site, October 14, 1999. Of course, 
during his career here in the Senate, Mr. Gore openly opposed the 
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
  In reference to the death penalty, Mr. President, candidate Gore has 
said this:

       I have always supported it because I think society has a 
     right to make careful judgments about when that ultimate 
     penalty ought to be applied.

  That was from the Associated Press, November 19, 1999. Senator Al 
Gore voted against the death penalty for drug kingpins on June 28, 
1990, and against the death penalty for terrorists on February 20, 
1991.
  Remember, he said, ``I support it,'' and then he twice voted against 
it.
  In reference to the earned-income tax credit, he said:

       I was the author of that proposal. I wrote that, so I say, 
     welcome aboard. This is something for which I have been a 
     principal proponent for a long time.

  That was in Time Magazine, November 1, 1999.
  Carthage Courier, February 21, 1980. Al Gore cast the tie-breaking 
vote in the Senate on August 6, 1993, to raise taxes on Social Security 
benefits.
  He said:

       Social Security Benefits will remain untaxed . . . I 
     sincerely believe that any plan to tax Social Security 
     benefits would place an unforgivable burden on our senior 
     citizens who are currently trying to enjoy their retirement 
     years in the face of ever-increasing prices. . . . It is 
     totally inconceivable. . . . It is unfair.

  Yet, of course, he was the one who cast the tie-breaking vote August 
6, 1993.
  In reference to investing Social Security funds in the stock market, 
he said:

       We didn't really propose it. We talked about the idea.

  See Clinton-Gore fiscal years 2000 and 2001 budget proposals. They 
not only talked about it; they proposed it in their budget, Mr. 
President.
  Here is another interesting quote:

       Does he (George W. Bush) have the experience to be 
     President? You know he has never put together a budget. The 
     Governor of Texas is by far the weakest chief executive 
     position in America and does not have the responsibility of 
     forming or presenting a budget.

  Now, if you look at Texas law, section 401.041, it reads:

       The Governor of Texas is the chief Budget Officer of the 
     State.

  Also, section 401.406 reads:

       The Governor shall deliver a copy of the Governor's budget 
     to each member of the legislature not later than the sixth 
     day of each regular legislative session.
  In reference to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance legislation, he 
said, ``Unlike Senator Bradley, I was a cosponsor of it.''
  That was in the New York Times, November 24, 1999.
  Cosponsor? I didn't know that Vice Presidents could become cosponsors 
of legislation. But be that as it may, that is what he said.
  Here is another quote; The American Prospect, June 5, 2000.

       One-hundred and sixty-three bills for free or reduced-cost 
     TV have been introduced in Congress since 1960.

  Here is what the Vice President said about it:

       Some of you may know that I don't come new to this issue; I 
     introduced the very first free TV legislation in the Senate, 
     exactly nine years ago this past Saturday, October 18, 1998.

  Interestingly enough, the first bills were introduced in 1960.
  Again, another mistake by our Vice President from the Columbia 
Journal Review, January 1993:

       In an interview published last Sunday by the Des Moines 
     Register, Gore was quoted as saying he ``got a bunch of 
     people indicted and sent to jail'' while working as a 
     reporter for the Tennessean in the 1970s.

  Two people were indicted for alleged corruption during the same 
period Al Gore covered the Nashville Metro Council. Neither of the two 
were imprisoned.

       I carried an M-16 . . . I pulled my turn on the perimeter 
     at night and walked through the elephant grass, and I was 
     fired upon.

  Los Angeles Times, October 15, 1999.
  According to witnesses, Al Gore was a reporter who never saw combat 
and was kept out of harm's way.
  A speech to the New England Business Council, November 30, 1999:
  ``I was a home builder after I came back from Vietnam. . . I know a 
good bit about how to make money that way''--meaning home building--
``to build this country is a great thing.''
  Tanglewood Homebuilders was a Gore family corporation. The contractor 
said Al Gore visited the construction site once or twice.

       I live on a farm today. I have my heart in my own farm.

  ABC News, December 23, 1999.
  Of course, we know that Mr. Gore was raised here in the city of 
Washington.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Bennett). The Senator's time has expired.
  Mr. CRAIG. Recognizing my time has expired, I will continue this 
dialog probably on Monday night. I have now quoted 20 of about 40 of 
these kinds of situations in which the Vice President has found 
himself. I will make them a part of the Record to compare them to what 
the Senator from Nevada has stated, and I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
  The Senator from Nebraska.

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