Gore: Bush using terror war as 'political wedge'
10:53 PM 6/08/02
Scott Milfred Wisconsin State Journal

indentPresident Bush is hurting the country by using the war on terrorism as "a political wedge," his former rival Al Gore said Saturday during his first stop in Madison since narrowly losing the 2000 presidential election.
indentGore sounded like a candidate for president again but made no mention of his plans. Instead, the former Democratic vice president urged the state convention's 1,400 delegates and additional guests to fight hard to elect a Democratic governor in Wisconsin this fall.
indent"2004 is a long ways off," Gore told the delegates. "2002 is here now. You can affect what goes on in your state and in your country. Get involved. When you leave this convention, go back home and tell it like it is."
indentGore said it's "not too much to ask" that Bush put politics aside for the war effort.
indent"He ought to stop using the war as a political wedge," Gore said of the Republican president. "It is not the right thing to do, and it hurts our country."
indentGore didn't offer details or examples. Through his staff members, he declined to respond to questions after his speech. Gore also ripped John Ashcroft, saying the attorney general last August stopped flying on commercial airlines because of safety concerns. Then, on Sept. 10, Ashcroft rejected a recommend increase in counterterrorism funding for the FBI, Gore said.
indent"He was paying attention when his security detail told him that he shouldn't fly on commercial aircraft," Gore said of Ashcroft. "Maybe he wasn't paying attention to what was being said about why that counterterrorism budget was needed."
indentGore noted that the Phoenix FBI office had warned before the Sept. 11 attacks that the agency should investigate foreign men from Arab countries with troubled backgrounds who were attending American flight schools.
indentTheir superiors said, "We don't have enough resources to do that," Gore told the delegates. "Meanwhile, the attorney general had 10 FBI agents working full time for 13 months listening in on conversations in New Orleans at a house of ill repute. There might have been some dancing going on there, apparently."
indentState delegates cheered and applauded Gore throughout his speech. They also laughed at Gore's many jokes about returning to a normal life after eight years under President Bill Clinton.
indentGore noted that he used to ride in motorcades behind bulletproof glass, sometimes with Secret Service agents running alongside his vehicle.
indent"They let other cars on the road with me when I drive now," he said. "And given that I haven't driven in eight years, I'm not sure it's a wise thing."
indentGore currently teaches at Fisk University in Nashville.
indent"I'm a visiting professor, or VP for short," Gore joked. "It's a way of hanging on."
indentDarrin Schmitz, a former campaign spokesman for Bush who now is helping manage Republican Gov. Scott McCallum's election efforts, called Gore's criticisms Saturday "disingenuous."
indentSchmitz said he didn't know the details of Gore's accusations, but terrorism didn't arise overnight. While Clinton and Gore were in office, terrorists launched bombing attacks on the World Trade Center in 1993, U.S. embassies in Africa in 1999 and the USS Cole in 2000.
indent"They turned their back on our security agencies, our military and ignored terrorists around the world," Schmitz said of Clinton and Gore. "And we're now paying the price for their lack of action."
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