As we stand in awe at Bill Clinton’s shamelessness, we should not overlook the prowess of his vice president, next to whom the president can seem positively refreshing. Last week, Al Gore denied that he had the slightest inkling that fund-raising — fund-raising of all things! — was going on during an event at a Buddhist temple out in California in April. He thought that Democratic National Committee operative John Huang had arranged a simple “community outreach event,” “not billed as a fund-raiser.” (Huang, by the way, seems to have “disappeared,” his whereabouts unknown like a character in a bad Washington spy novel; with charges of campaign-finance malfeasance and the promotion of the interests of an Indonesian bank you once worked for hovering around, you’d disappear too.)
Well, the Democrats “reached out” to their guests — many of them impoverished monks and nuns — by shoving $ 5,000 cash into their hands and asking them to write checks in that amount to the DNC (five grand being the maximum contribution allowed by law).
The evening’s take was $ 140,000, not a tremendous sum by Indo-Lippo- Clinton standards, but the DNC has no intention of returning it. Said Gore to the gentlefolk at National Public Radio, “I did not know at the time. The people with me did not. Obviously, somebody didn’t handle it right.” But not to worry: “I trust people to see the truth of the situation.”
Really, Mr. Vice President? Even when you open yourself to the charge that you are lying through your teeth?
