Just wanted to count all the votes, eh?...
<<XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX THU DEC 14, 2000 20:29 ET XXXXX
GORE REFUSED TO WATCH BUSH'S SPEECH; VP PERSONALLY ORDERED ATTACK ON HARRIS
Vice President Al Gore refused to watch George W. Bush's acceptance speech on Wednesday night, choosing instead to mingle with about 100 close friends, aides and family members who had gathered under a white tent at his residence for a hastily planned party.
The party broke up near 3 a.m., the vice president and his wife spent much of the evening dancing, clearly happy with a "sense of release," the NEW YORK TIMES is planning to report in Friday editions.
According to publishing sources, the TIMES is preparing a bombshell behind-the-scenes account of Gore's election battle.
MORE
The TIMES has learned that Gore personally lobbied top newspaper and newsmagazine editors and television news executives during the past month. "Gore made two rounds of telephone calls, once when he feared Harris would certify the Florida results on Nov. 18 and again when she was about to certify on Nov. 26."
The vice president personally urged editors and executives not to join Harris in declaring Bush the winner.
The TIMES outlines a memo written by Gore spinner Mark Fabiani' which detailed a weeklong plan that left little to chance in a crusade to "create news relentlessly, especially news that is televised."
He suggested ways to plant stories in the TIMES and prescribed "a strict schedule of two televised press events each day,'' including a Thanksgiving-eve visit to a homeless shelter. While there, he wrote in his script, "Gore wanders over to the cameras and gives a statement so we have sound from him over the holiday.'' That is essentially what Gore did as he unloaded boxes of food. "We don't have to count these boxes, do we?'' he asked with a grin.
GORE ORDERED ATTACK ON HARRIS
When Florida's Secretary of State Katherine Harris emerged as a key player, Gore asked an adviser: "What do we know about her?'" according to the report.
When a Gore adviser responded that Harris was a partisan and Bush's campaign co-chair, Gore demanded: "Why aren't we getting that out?"
GORE'S KIDS SPOOKED BY CHANTS
Gore's children were "deeply wounded by the chants of pro-Bush demonstrators outside the vice president's residence -- "Get out of Cheney's house!'' -- which echoed through the living quarters, according to the report.>> |
