Gore Blasted For Raising Funds In Office Dnc Installed Phones, Faxes In Government Buildings
The Democratic Party had telephone lines installed in government buildings for use in Vice President Al Gore’s drive to raise millions of dollars for the 1996 campaign, a former top aide to President Clinton says.
Gore’s direct role in soliciting donations was inappropriate, two Democratic senators said Sunday.
But a White House lawyer denied any illegality or impropriety, and Dick Morris, who was a key campaign adviser, said he was “tickled to death” that Gore was so aggressive. Without the vice president’s efforts, the Clinton-Gore would have lost re-election, he said.
Gore’s fund-raising network raised $40 million of the $180 million collected by the Democratic National Committee for the 1996 campaign, The Washington Post reported.
George Stephanopoulos, former senior adviser to Clinton and now a regular panelist on ABC’s “This Week,” said on the program Sunday that the Democrats were broke in 1994 and 1995, and “of course the vice president was raising money.”
“You set up special phones, political phones, paid for by the DNC,” he said.
Asked by correspondent Sam Donaldson to elaborate, because political fund-raising on government property is unlawful, Stephanopoulos said: “You put in different lines, but the legal counsel sets it up. You put in special phones, special faxes, special computers that are for political work, for the fund-raiser work.”
Donaldson: “But still inside of a government building?”
Stephanopoulos: “Sure.”
Donaldson: “A government residence.”
Stephanopoulos: “Absolutely.”
Another panelist, Republican strategist William Kristol, said, “You cannot raise money in or from a government building.”
Stephanopoulos replied, “Well, I mean, that’s nuts.”
While the White House counsel in 1995, Abner Mikva circulated a memo that said: “Campaign activities of any kind are prohibited in or from government buildings. … also no fund-raising phone calls or mail may emanate from the White House.”
Had he known that the DNC was arranging money-raising events in the White House, Mikva said in a Newsweek magazine interview published today, he “sure as hell would have been upset about it - and we would have put a stop to it.”
Mikva said he was unaware of coffee klatches at the White House that Newsweek said the DNC budgeted as “fund-raising events” and listed the amount “projected” to be raised from each event.
“Any Philadelphia lawyer knows you don’t raise money in a government building,” Mikva said. “And if they were budgeting money for them, that’s raising money.”
Stephanopoulos alleged that as vice president, Dan Quayle sponsored “fund-raisers at the Naval Observatory,” site of the vice presidential residence. Kristol, who was Quayle’s chief of staff, denied it.
But Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., demanded an investigation by the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee of a reception Quayle gave at the observatory on Sept. 23, 1990, in honor of “the Republican Senatorial Inner Circle,” a group of major GOP donors.
Sens. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., and Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., criticized Gore for making the calls but denied Republican claims that administration officials violated the law.
“I’m not going to be in the business of defending the undefendable, and what is more I do not personally believe it is appropriate for the president or the vice president of the United States to directly solicit contributions,” Torricelli said on Fox. “It’s inappropriate, but it is not a legal issue.”
“Vice President Gore was part of an effort to compete against the Republicans,” White House counsel Lanny Davis said on CNN’s “Late Edition.” “He did nothing wrong and nothing illegal. The suggestion of any coercion is completely baseless.”
The Post said the three previous vice presidents never made such direct requests for contributions. The newspaper reported that several donors privately complained that Gore’s calls were inappropriate.
Many of those contacted operated businesses that relied on government contracts or assistance.
In one instance DSC Communications of Texas reportedly gave a $100,000 contribution to the Democrats as a “thank you” for the Commerce Department’s efforts on behalf of DSC’s bid to win a $36 million telecommunications contract in Mexico.
Davis said the department’s mission is to boost U.S. businesses abroad and that the donation influenced no government action.
xxxx GEORGE CASHES IN A Washington Post column about newsmakers has this to say about former presidential adviser George Stephanopoulos: “Stephanopoulos has yet another gig: Newsweek writer. His contract requires seven pages of prose in a year. No word on his pay, natch. “His first piece comes out next week and is about - what else? - fund raising, presumably how not to do it. Or maybe he’ll reveal how he a parlayed a $125,000-a-year White House job into a $2.75 million book deal, an ABC-TV talking-head spot and a Columbia University teaching job. Last week, he bought a $550,000 New York apartment - 2 bdrm, riv vu - near Columbia.”