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Politics : Al Gore vs George Bush: the moderate's perspective -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (1010)	10/1/2000 3:06:16 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Respond to of 10042

INTRIGUE SWIRLS AROUND MCKINNON; BUSH AD MAN WORKED WITH CARVILLE, BEGALA Exclusive Intrigue was swirling around Bush media consultant Mark McKinnon late Saturday after it was revealed that the FBI has launched a full criminal investigation in the Bush debate tapes episode. McKinnon employee Yvette Lozano became the focus of an FBI inquiry after debate prep materials were mailed to the Al Gore presidential campaign and investigators obtained a security videotape of her mailing a package in an Austin post office. Forensic evidence developed by the FBI lab links McKinnon employee, Lozano, to a package containing sensitive internal Bush campaign documents the tape, the WASHINGTON POST reported on Saturday. The label on the Express Mail package received by Gore adviser Tom Downey on Sept. 13 also corresponds to the date Lozano was filmed in the Post Office. Yvette Lozano, who had access to debate materials kept at the McKinnon office, graduated from a Democratic activists training program in 1990, records show. According to the training organization’s website, the goal of the program is to train "the next generation of Democratic activists." But confusing comments and actions taken by McKinnon himself now have investigators and campaign insiders fascinated. McKinnon, who got his political start by volunteering for a Texas Democrat's 1984 Senate campaign, where he worked with political operatives James Carville and Paul Begala, explained that he told Lozano to mail a pair of $19.99 khaki trousers back to the Gap for a another color. But insiders find it curious that McKinnon felt the need to mail the pants at all -- when a Gap store is located just a mile from McKinnon’s Austin office! A map shows the short distance between McKinnon’s office and a nearby Gap. And did Mark McKinnon "express mail" the pants at a cost [$10 for express delivery] of nearly half the value of the pants? "Bush is a lightweight," Paul Begala told the WASHINGTON POST‘s Howard Kurtz last year. Begala noted that Bush would be helped by hiring Begala‘s old college chum McKinnon. "He needs a guy like Mark who can give him the appearance of having a heart and maybe even of having a brain." "I trust Mark, I trust his judgment," said Democratic consultant and close Clinton adviser Mandy Grunwald, also a former McKinnon colleague. In 1995, McKinnon told a reporter that he thought Democrats would have plenty of opportunities to make gains in the future when "Republicans will be in the position of having to defend some of the rather extreme legislation they have been passing." McKinnon added: "I think progressives should relax, sit back and wait for the time to strike." Some Austin insiders argued internally Saturday afternoon that the Bush campaign should immediatly begin distancing itself from McKinnon. MORE Besides the Bush videotape, Gore adviser Tom Downey was sent a half-inch stack of documents and a cover sheet, an unsigned message on plain paper which read: "Here's some material that might be helpful to you. I'll call in a few days to see if you need anything else." The package of materials included no letterhead or identifying features. Last week, ABC NEWS conducted an on-camera interview with a source who claimed a Gore campaign staffer repeatedly bragged to him that there was a mole inside of the Bush campaign. Developing... ----------------------------------------------------------- Filed by Matt Drudge Reports are moved when circumstances warrant drudgereport.com for updates