Posted by
Mike Bates on Tuesday, March 30, 2010 1:10:03 PM
The mainstream media are having a field day with
the Republican National Committee spending contributor dollars for
"meals" at a risqué Hollywood night spot. Washington Post columnist Dana
Milbank joins in the fun with today's
"RNC spends nearly $2,000 at sex-themed Voyeur nightclub." He
provides titillating details of what transpires in that joint, and then
attempts a quick rewrite of history with, "And Al Gore got in trouble
for going to a Buddhist temple?"
That's seriously misleading. It wasn't going to a Buddhist temple in
April of 1996 that got Gore into trouble. It was lying about illegally
raising money there that raised questions and generated skepticism
about Gore's truthfulness. And, in the end, he didn't really get into
any serious trouble at all. As
reported by the New York Times in August, 2000:
For the third time, Attorney General Janet Reno brushed
off the advice of senior advisers and declined to intensify an
investigation into Vice President Al Gore's fundraising activities in
1996.
She said she would not appoint a special prosecutor to investigate
Mr. Gore's sworn statements that neither his appearance at a Buddhist
temple in California in 1986 nor his attendance at several White House
coffee sessions were fundraisers.
Sure, Gore was subjected to some ridicule. According to Time
Magazine in November, 1996:
Vice President Al Gore claims to have been entirely
unaware that an April luncheon he attended at a Buddhist temple in
California was an illegal fund raiser. With a face as straight as only
his can be, Gore said in a radio interview last week that he thought the
function, organized by Huang and the D.N.C., was a "community-outreach"
event. More observant guests, however, have said it was plain to them
that what was reaching out was an open palm. Attendees included
deep-pocketed members of the local Asian-American community. The D.N.C.
says it collected $140,000.
In 1998, Milbank's own Washington Post carried the executive summary
of the final report of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee's
"Investigation on Illegal or Improper Activities in Connection With The
1996 Federal Election Campaigns." That included
this:
Despite his repeated, albeit inconsistent, denials, it
is reasonable to conclude that the Vice President was well aware that
the Temple event was for the purpose of raising money. The event was
organized by Huang and Hsia, who had longstanding relationships with
Vice President Gore that revolved almost entirely around campaign
fundraising. More specifically, in the weeks prior to his Temple visit,
Vice President Gore was repeatedly reminded that the April 29 luncheon
was a fundraiser and was even meticulously informed by Ickes of the
DNC's "projected revenue" for the event. The Vice President received the
last of these notifications of the April 29 lunch's "projected revenue"
only 24 hours before he received his briefing notes for the Temple
lunch
The Vice President's staff also knew that the Temple event was a
fundraiser. In March 1996, Deputy Chief of Staff David Strauss had
helped arrange a meeting in the White House with the head of the Temple,
Master Hsing Yun – a meeting which Strauss believed would "lead to a
lot of $." The White House staff repeatedly referred to the event as a
"fundraiser" in internal correspondence, and assigned to it a "ticket
price" of "1000-5000 [dollars per] head."
Despite the evidence, Gore escaped prosecution with a little help
from his friends. Merely "going to a Buddhist temple" doesn't begin to
cover what he actually did.