The lesson of the mole

Am I the only one who thinks the case of the leaked campaign
videotape reflects almost as badly on George W. Bush’s campaign as it
does on Al Gore’s?

To recap, the FBI is investigating who smuggled a videotape of Bush’s
debate preparations to the Gore campaign. Scrutiny has focused on a
low-level campaign aide, Juanita Yvette Lozano. Forensic evidence links
her to the package delivered to Gore officials.

Who is Lozano?

She is 30 years old and her experience leading to her job with the
Bush campaign consists of a decade of work in Democratic Party politics
in Texas. That’s right. I said, Democratic Party politics.

Glen Maxey, a Democratic state legislator who once hired her,
described Lozano as a “liberal Democrat.” She graduated from a training
program for Democratic activists in 1990.

If that’s not bad enough, she was fired by another state lawmaker in
1998 because of questions about her truthfulness. State Rep. Vilma Luna,
one of Gore’s state chairmen, said Lozano lied to her after failing to
complete an assignment.

But it gets worse. Much worse. Lozano worked for Mark McKinnon, a top
Bush media consultant. And who is McKinnon? He got his start by
volunteering for a Texas Democrat’s Senate campaign where he worked with
political operatives James Carville and Paul Begala.

Last year, Begala was quoted in the Washington Post as saying: “Bush
is a lightweight. He needs a guy like Mark who can give him the
appearance of having a heart and maybe even of having a brain.”

Clinton spinmeister Mandy Grunwald had this to say about McKinnon: “I
trust Mark, I trust his judgment.”

In 1995, McKinnon told a reporter that he thought Democrats would
have plenty of opportunities to make gains in the future when
“Republicans will be in the position of having to defend some of the
rather extreme legislation they have been passing. I think progressives
should relax, sit back and wait for the time to strike.”

Attention has focused on Lozano because she was videotaped mailing a
package the day before the videotape arrived at the Gore camp. McKinnon
provides her alibi, claiming that he had asked her to mail a pair of
pants back to the Gap that day.

The package was sent overnight mail at a cost of $10. The Gap is less
than a mile from his office and only a few blocks from the post office.

But that kind of deceit is what we should expect from the
Clinton-Gore folks. In fact, the only thing that would surprise me is if
I learned that the Gore operatives had not at least tried to plant
someone inside the Bush campaign. I would be shocked if they had not
conducted some political dirty tricks.

What I wonder is why more Bush supporters are not appalled at the
lack of security around their candidate. What kind of a Keystone
Kampaign is this? Just whom do they think they are running against,
Mother Teresa?

Did they do any background checks? If so, why is the Bush camp so
fond of hiring ideologically committed Democrats?

This also raises the question of what kind of national security team
the Bush camp would put together based on this breakdown. OK, I know
what you Bush backers are saying to this: Farah, what kind of national
security team do you think Gore will put together. That’s the point. I
know what kind of administration Gore will produce. I know it will be a
criminal enterprise much like the one in which he has been involved for
the last eight years. I know. I know.

But do you know what your man will do? I don’t think you do. You’re
willing to take a pig in a poke and not look too closely at it just to
avoid the devil you know.

If Bush can’t contend with the dirty tricks of Al Gore, is he going
to be a match for the Chinese? For Saddam Hussein? For the Washington
Post? I don’t think so.

I’ll tell you what happened here. The Gore campaign realized how
stupid their opponent and his inner circle really are. They realized
they could take advantage of this opportunity and place their own
operatives inside the campaign. They sat back, as Mark McKinnon
suggested, and waited for their time to strike.

They got no resistance from Dubya or his people. And you call this an
alternative to the nightmare we have experienced in this country since
1993?

Joseph Farah

Joseph Farah is founder, editor and chief executive officer of WND. He is the author or co-author of 13 books that have sold more than 5 million copies, including his latest, "The Gospel in Every Book of the Old Testament." Before launching WND as the first independent online news outlet in 1997, he served as editor in chief of major market dailies including the legendary Sacramento Union. Read more of Joseph Farah's articles here.