AL GORE WANTS "CONTROLLING LEGAL AUTHORITY" - OVER YOU

The man who could find "no controlling legal authority" governing his own shameful and possibly illegal conduct during the 1996 presidential campaign is ready to assert plenty of "controlling legal authority" over your lawful exercise of your First Amendment rights. Al Gore doesn't like the way you and I participate in the political process. We insist on exercising our rights as citizens; but in Al Gore's eyes we are on the wrong side, so we must be "special interests." And Al Gore wants to "reform" us right out of the public arena.

You see, Al Gore has a "plan." The Gore 2000 web site modestly calls it "Al Gore's Plan to Restore Faith in America's Democracy." This plan is supposed to "give democracy back to the American people."

This is, of course, typically Gore-ish double-talk, because behind the benign phrases is a deadly threat to your civic liberties. We are now at the point where more and more people see Al Gore as being sanctimonious, pompous, and ready to make things up; but it would be extremely unfortunate if that impression made you stop paying attention to Al Gore. Recent history has proved that habitual liars can be elected president-even re-elected. And while Al Gore makes things up even when he doesn't have to, you should always believe him when he threatens you.

On March 27, Al Gore presented his plan on "political and campaign reform" at Marquette University in Wisconsin. He claimed to have "sponsored or co-sponsored more than a dozen reform bills since [my] first term in Congress," going back to 1978.

Yet with all this alleged history of reformist zeal, Al Gore had to admit obliquely to another, more recent history of campaign irregularities on his part. He said, "I understand the doubts about whether I personally am serious on campaign reform. I've got the scars to prove it. And I know I may [emphasis added] be an imperfect messenger for this cause." Al Gore is too modest. He is a perfect messenger for the notion that those bent on ignoring or breaking existing laws are not going to be deterred by new "reform" laws.

After this dubious "admission" comes an even more galling reference to his campaign shenanigans: "I know first-hand what is wrong with the way we fund political campaigns." Note that Al Gore doesn't say, "it was wrong the way I, Al Gore, funded campaigns"; instead the guilty ones are "we"-you and I and the rest of the country.

But do not despair, Al Gore has a "plan" to right the wrong. It's a simple and straightforward plan. It lets the guilty off the hook and punishes the law-abiding. It's ingenious. And if enacted, it would leave civic rights severely diminished and the power of the state and its bureaucracies greatly enhanced. Clearly, Al Gore is "personally serious on campaign reform"-dead serious.

What would the Gore "reform" do? Listen to Al Gore: "I make this pledge today: If you elect me as your President, the McCain-Feingold bill will be the first domestic legislation I send to Congress-on my first day in office."

This would just be the beginning. "I will identify by name the special interests blocking the way. I will propose and fight for a law requiring monthly disclosure of all lobbyists' activities" The Gore 2000 web site helpfully explains that such reports need to include "the names of officials to whom lobbyists contributed and the specific meetings they have attended to discuss legislation" [emphasis added]. You and the NRLC lobbyists who represent you would have to report dutifully to snooping bureaucrats just to satisfy the man who claims not to have known why he was at a certain Buddhist temple pocketing illegal campaign contributions.

Of course there is more. "If broadcast stations air independent issue ads, I believe they should be required by the FCC to give-for free-the same amount of air time to both candidates in the race. If the broadcasters wanted to avoid [giving] free time, all they have to do is say no to the special interests" [emphasis added]. Under such a regulation it would be uneconomical for a broadcast station to accept an educational ad from NRLC about, for example, the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act because candidates could easily claim that such ads entitled them to free air time.

And there is still more from the Gore 2000 web site: "Al Gore supports measures to require that all issue advertisements by special interest groups within 60 days of an election disclose their sources of funding." Now Al Gore wants your name and what you contributed to National Right to Life or to any other citizen group to which you belong that dares advertise on public policy. (This despite the fact that the Supreme Court decided in 1958 in the case of NAACP v. Alabama that the government has no right to do that.)

All these curtailments of your constitutional rights of free speech, freedom of association, and freedom to lobby require more power for the government bureaucracy: "Al Gore would strengthen the FEC [Federal Election Commission] by devoting more resources to this body, strengthening its powers of investigation and nominating reform activists to the FEC." This is the same Al Gore who claims to have "streamlined government" during the past eight years. Presumably, these "reform activists" would have no problem depriving you of your constitutional rights. After all, we are talking "reform" here.

This is not empty rhetoric; this is a serious threat to your civic liberties. Not only would a President Gore appoint pro-abortion justices and restore the 7:2 pro-abortion majority of 1973 in the U.S. Supreme Court, he would launch a direct assault on your constitutional rights in the name of "reform." Do not, I repeat, do not underestimate this man. Alert your friends, your community.

While patriotism is the last refuge of ordinary scoundrels, phony "reform" has become the last refuge of those hungry for power without constraint by an alert citizenry.