The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 13, 2000, Page A4, Image 4
Bush, Gore attack each other
by Glen Johnson
Associated Press
Plant City, Fla. — Geoijfe W. Bush
ate his way through a strawberry festival
on Sunday while A1 Gore preached against
racism, but the placid settings did not de
ter a biting exchange between the two
presidential contenders.
Bush, appearing near Tampa with his
brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, said “I
wasn’t sure if it was an April Fool’s edi
tion” when he picked up Sunday’s news
paper and saw Gore promising to make
campaign finance reform an issue after
admitting to funding “mistakes” in the
1996 re-election campaign. Gore told
The New York Times he had learned from
those errors.
Bush, the Texas governor, sounded
incredulous.
“I think the vice president is some
one who will say anything to get elect
ed. The more he talks about campaign
funding reform, the better off it will be
for my campaign,” he said.
Meanwhile, in an interview with The
Associated Press, Gore said Bush’s five
year, $483-billion tax-cut plan would put
Social Security, Medicare and health care
in general at risk.
“In the words of John McCain, he
doesn’t put one penny into Social Secu
rity, one penny into Medicare or one pen
ny into expanding access to health care,”
the vice president said, quoting the Ari
zona senator whom Bush knocked out of
the GOP presidential race last week.
Gore repeated the refrain at an as
sisted living home for seniors near Dal
las, calling Bush’s tax-cut plan “a risky
tax scheme” that would threaten Medicare
and Social Security.
The vice president, who was in his ri
val’s home state during the AP interview,
also questioned Bush’s readiness to lead
the country.
Bush immediately shot back: “The
vice president obviously believes that all
knowledge and wisdom emanates out
of Washington... I think all wisdom and
knowledge emanates from the people.”
The exchange came as the Republi
can and Democratic challengers
crossed into each other’s territory look
ing for votes. Six states — Florida,
Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Ten
nessee and Texas—hold presidential pri
manes Tuesday, awarding 341 GOP and
566 Democratic delegates
After appearances in Texas, Gore was
headed to Florida for the evening.
Bush also was traveling in his oppo
nent’s home state, picked up the en
dorsement in Knoxville, Tenn., of Sen.
Fred Thompson, who had supported Me
Cain. Thompson, who headed an inves
tigation into the 1996 fund-raising prob
lems, tweaked Gore for his interest in
campaign finance reform.
“Wbw, I sure could have used his help
a couple of years ago, when we and the
rest of the nation were watching them
Attacks see rage as
‘The vice president obviously believes that all
knowledge and wisdom emanates out of Washington
... I think all wisdom and knowledge emanates from
the people.’
George W. Bush
GOP Presidential candidate
Clinton, NRA brawl
by Calvin Woodward
Associated Press
Washington—Charges of dishonesty
and fear-mongering over tougher gun laws
flew Sunday in back-to-back TV appear
ances by President Clinton and a top of
ficial of the National Rifle Association
with Clinton accusing the group of “knee
jerk” opposition to any gun safety mea
sure.
NRA executive vice president Wayne
LaPierre, in turn, accused the president
of exploiting gun deaths for political pur
poses.
“I’ve come to believe that he needs
a certain level of violence in this coun
try,” LaPierre said. “He’s willing to ac
cept a certain level of killing to further
his political agenda and his vice president,
too.”
One point at issue was a new adver
tising campaign in which NRA President
Charlton Heston all but accuses the pres
ident of lying in his characterizations of
the group as an impediment to sensible
laws and public safety.'
But the sparring was more broadly
over Clinton’s effort to win congressional
approval of some of the gun controls that
have eluded him so far and to inject the
subject into the presidential campaign.
Appearing on ABC’s “This Week,”
Clinton said the NRA was “ruthlessly
brutal” in helping defeat members of Con
gress who voted for laws such as the Brady
Bill that requires a waiting period for gun
purchases and the ban on assault-type
weapons.
He dismissed as “wounded rhetoric”
the group’s contention that he unfairly
overlooks the NRA’s record of promot
ing gun safety and tougher enforcement
of existing laws, calling the protests “croc
odile tears.”
“I don’t think it will wash with the
voters, even with Moses reading the
script.” That was a reference to Heston,
an actor who played Moses in the movie,
“The Ten Commandments.”
LaPierre, appearing after the presi
dent on “This Week,” attributed Clin
ton’s renewed focus on gun control to his
interest in getting Gore elected. “The
pollsters and consultants are telling them,
scare suburban women,” said LaPierre.
Among other steps, Clinton wants
people who make purchases at gun shows
to be subject to background checks that
could take as long as 72 hours. Many con
gressional Republicans, like the NRA,
want any such checks to be instant or at
least no longer than 24 hours.
“I just think that their knee-jerk re
action to any gun safety measure is
wrong,” Clinton said of the NRA. “If you
do one little thing that requires any ac
commodation ... they think it’s the end
of the world”
Ethics Commission to
investigate pro-flag group
Associated Press
The South Carolina Ethics Com
mission will review whether a pro-flag
group violated state campaign finance
laws when it mailed attacks on Gov.
Jim Hodges statewide.
Cathy Hazelwood, general counsel
for the Ethics Commission, said the
Keep It Flying group did not have to
disclose its contributions because it did
not try to influence an election or bal
lot measure.
But after being shown the content
of the letter Wednesday, Hazelwood
said the commission may have to re
think its position. Hazelwood made
copies of the letter for the commission
to review.
"W didn’t have this before,” she
said. “This is a new wrinkle.”
■ ... "
The letter blasted Hodges and “Ills
liberal allies” for wanting to move the
Confederate flag from the Statehouse
dome.
It also accused Republican presi
dential hopeful John McCain of waf
fling on the flag issue, and it praised
George W. Bush for not knuckling
under to the media when questioned
about the flag during a debate in Janu
ary.
House Majority Leader Rick Quinn
of Columbia said Keep It Flying should
register as a political action committee
with the state Ethics Commission and
file a campaign finance disclosure for
the mailing the group made just days
before South Carolina’s Republican
presidential primary on Feb. 19.
News Briefs
■ White House
contractor alleges
threats over e-mails
Washington (AP) — A former White
House contractor says she was told that
e-mail messages never turned over to con
gressional investigators or the Justice De
partment discuss Vice President A1 Gore’s
involvement in the campaign fund-rais
ing controversy.
In a declaration unsealed Friday in
federal court, Betty Lambuth said a
subordinate also told her some of the un
reviewed e-mails deal with “the sale of
Clinton Commerce Department trade
mission seats in exchange for campaign
contributions.”
Lambuth said she was warned by
White House superiors in May 1998 not
to reveal a problem with the e-mail sys
tem that made it impossible to do a com
puter search of 100,000 or more mes
sages in response to various investigations
of the Clinton administration.
After Lambuth informed the White
House of the problem, she said Office of
Administration counsel Mark Lindsay
told her “ that if I or any of my team who
knew about the e-mail problem told any
one else about it we would lose our jobs,
be arrested and put in jail.”
■ Gas prices rise at
record levels
Los Angeles (AP)—Gasoline prices
soared a record 12 cents per gallon in the
past two weeks as rising crude oil costs
hit Americans hard at the pump, the Lund
beig Survey reported Sunday.
The average retail price of gasoline
nationwide, including all grades and tax
es, was about $ 1.59 per gallon on Friday,
up 11.99 cents from Feb. 25, according
to survey of 10,000 stations.
“The word ‘increase’ kind of pales,”
analyst Trilby Lundberg said.
The costliest gas, premium at full-ser
vice stations, even flirted with the $2
per-gallon mark.
Consumers could take some comfort
that, when adjusted for inflation, the
average overall price is still lower than
the record set two decades ago.
-:
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South Tower or McBryde,
you will not sign-up
^on-line.
_. . _
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I
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the Campus Room, Capstone
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4:30pm in the Campus
Room, Capstone
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8:00pm in the Preston
Dining Hall
I March 15
l
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the Preston Dining Hall
. March 16
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* Each chapter must schedule an appointment
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r‘ Fni^fsityj^ousirig||
Time: 7 PM
Mary Lightfine is a nurse
with Doctors Without
Borders, an organization
that was awarded the
Nobel Prize. Her work
has taken her to all
comers of the globe, to
places unimaginable to
most of us.
Sponsored by
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Student Services
Sr Women Students'
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Location:
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For more information,
please contact:
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803.777.6688
Don't forget!
Thursday, March 16, 2000
7 PM