But Gore’s final ascent–to the Oval Office in 2000–just got trickier. Last week Easy Rider hit the rail. The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward documented Gore’s fervid fund raising. The vice president then made matters worse, conducting a disastrous press conference in which he muffed key details–like who paid for the calls he made–and deflected questions by woodenly re- peating a legalistic mantra. ““It wasn’t as bad as Nixon in 1962, but close,’’ said one consultant.
Gore’s game plan had been to raise money, lie low and run out the clock. Now all that is more difficult, even if he escapes legal entanglement. One of any veep’s advantages–access to cash–is suddenly radioactive. His Boy Scout image is smudged. And inside the Beltway the campaign has be. Potential rivals gun were emboldened–not just by the Post story but by Gore’s inept reaction to it. In 1988, insiders note, he made his one serious misstep, an amateurish campaign for the Democratic nomination. ““Maybe he can’t really hit big-league pitching,’’ said an aide to one foe.
We’ll soon see. Even before ““Phonegate,’’ rivals were getting serious. House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, NEWSWEEK has learned, has hired Stan Greenberg, who ran the numbers for Clinton-Gore in 1992. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts is interested, as is Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska. Bill Bradley quit the Senate to teach, do charity work, make money–and position himself. His new top aide, NEWSWEEK has learned, is Ed Turlington, a seasoned campaign manager who ran North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt’s successful re-election bid. After a recent TV appearance, Bradley uncharacteristically phoned friends to hear the reviews.
But it won’t be easy for Gore’s rivals to capitalize on his fund-raising troubles. That way lies sanctimony: each has his own history of money grubbing. Bradley is now a champion of radical campaign reform, but was a prodigious cash collector. Kerrey wants reform, too, but chairs the Democrats’ Senate-campaign committee. At a recent Manhattan fund-raiser, Gore got his picture in the papers. But Kerrey was visible in the background. ““Bad angle,’’ said one of Kerrey’s advisers. He wasn’t laughing.
