WASHINGTON — In Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Al Gore has picked a serious,
respected, independent-minded and, some might even add, bipartisan
running mate. He’s also hired a conscience.
Or so it would seem.
Yes, Lieberman, D-Conn., has often been critical of the Clinton
administration.
He broke with his fellow Democrats — and Gore — during the
impeachment crisis and scolded President Clinton in a Senate speech.
He also slammed Attorney General Janet Reno’s “shocking lack of
urgency” in investigating suspected Chinese spy Wen Ho Lee.
And in expressing concerns about the White House’s 1996 money
shakedown, Lieberman was a lone voice on the Democratic side of the
Senate’s 1997 fundraising inquiry.
But when the vice president found himself in hot water over hosting
an illegal Buddhist temple fundraiser, Lieberman’s famously open mind
suddenly slammed shut. The indefensible became defensible, and Lieberman
turned defense lawyer, doing exactly what he rebuked his colleagues for
doing.
If Gore has an Achilles’ heel, it’s the 1996 shakedown of Buddhist
nuns and monks. Meetings and memos show he knew it was a fundraiser,
despite his denials. His old fundraiser pal, Maria Hsia, organized the
event. And there’s no doubt it was illegal: She was convicted of
laundering temple money into Clinton-Gore coffers.
Yet during the temple phase of the Senate’s probe, Lieberman’s
trademark bipartisanship curiously dried up. He attacked Republicans for
tying Gore to the
temple fundraiser.
“It’s unfair to attempt to hold the vice president accountable” for
that wrongdoing, he said. “There’s not a shred of evidence of that.”
Lieberman even defended Gore’s claim he didn’t know it was a
fundraiser, and then scolded Republicans for daring to question the
vice president’s veracity.
“We are pursuing a question here which is irrelevant,” he said. “The
vice president has said clearly that he did not view this as a
fundraiser. For us to try to prove the converse is to do something that
I don’t think the members of this committee want to do, which is to say
the vice president is not telling the truth.”
No, horrors, not that — Gore not tell the truth? — perish the
thought.
Even though Lieberman had to admit it was “perplexing and troubling”
that two temple nuns had simultaneously destroyed documents before the
investigation, he
didn’t care to hear their story under oath.
Every member of the Thompson committee, Democrats included, voted to
grant the nuns immunity so they’d testify and shed more light on the
temple shakedown.
Every member, that is, save one — Lieberman. The immunity vote was
15-1.
So forceful and unusual was Lieberman’s defense of Gore’s role in the
illegal temple fundraiser, it begs the question: How long has Lieberman
been on Gore’s short list?
