WASHINGTON — Al Gore still has never fully confessed his role in an
illegal Buddhist temple fund-raiser in 1996 — even under oath. He
recently told prosecutors
he didn’t know what he was getting into, as if the whole event just kind
of snuck up on him at the last minute.
In fact, he says he only focused on it when he opened his “briefing
book” in the limo ride from the Los Angeles airport to the temple. Oops,
too late. Next thing he knows, Buddhist nuns are draping leis around his
neck and Democratic National Committee
fund-raisers are scurrying about with cell phones and calculators.
But not only did Gore know what he was getting into weeks in advance,
he also had 15 chances, by my count, to back out of the fund-raiser and
avoid the years of controversy and organic explanations that have
followed. And his chances to escape the Temple of Doom start way back in
January 1989, when he first met the temple master.
1st chance: More than 11 years ago, Gore could have followed
the example of six other U.S. senators and turned down a bizarre
invitation from Venerable Master Hsing Yun to visit his Buddhist order
headquarters in Taiwan.
But unlike Sens. Daniel Inouye, Tim Wirth, Kent Conrad, James Exon,
John Melcher and Tom Daschle, who thought better of it, Gore made the
trip — the only U.S. politician to do so. While there, he struck up a
troubling relationship with Hsing, known as “the political monk,” who
promised to help get him elected president. In turn, Gore promised, “I
will visit you when I become president.”
Gore apparently couldn’t wait, visiting Hsing as vice president at
his 15-acre Hsi Lai temple in Los Angeles. “I made a mistake going to
that Buddhist temple,” Gore now admits.
2nd chance: Leaving aside the criminal money-laundering that
went on there, his appearance was a “mistake,” because tax-exempt
religious orders can’t get involved in political activities. But Gore
didn’t seem to have a problem with that in May 1989, when Hsing sent a
team of monks and nuns to a fund-raiser for his senate campaign. The
event raised $20,000 for him. Accordingly, Gore wrote a letter
afterwards thanking one of the monastics for “the support of your
congregation.” Note the word “congregation,” as in a group of
worshippers. So apparently Gore knew a church was helping his campaign,
yet instead of ending the relationship, he chose to nurture it.
3rd chance: In September 1993, Gore had another opportunity to
distance himself from the temple. His old Senate fund-raiser pal, Maria
Hsia, who escorted him on his 1989 trip, arranged to launder $5,000 of
the temple’s money through three monastic straw donors to the Democratic
National Committee for a fund-raiser with Vice President Gore. Gore
never questioned the source of the $5,000. This March, Hsia was
convicted on campaign fraud charges related to that money, as
well as funds raised at the temple in 1996.
4th chance: Gore could have nixed a March 15, 1996, meeting in
the White House with Master Hsing as soon as Hsia and John Huang,
another convicted DNC fund-raiser, sent over social security numbers to
the Secret Service to clear temple visitors for the meeting. But he let
the meeting, during which the fateful 1996 event was set, go forward.
5th chance: On the morning before the March 15 meeting, Gore
could have politely backed out when he spoke by phone with Hsia at her
Hay-Adams Hotel. But he only firmed things up, despite the reservations
of his own staff.
6th chance: When Hsing invited Gore to the Hsi Lai temple at
the meeting, he could have respectfully declined. Instead, he agreed to
a visit sometime in April 1996.
7th chance: When his scheduler Kim Tilley e-mailed Gore
confirming the Los Angeles “fund-raiser” for April 29, Gore didn’t
object in his reply.
8th chance: The next day, Gore got a letter from Hsia
confirming April 29 as the date of the temple “fund-raising lunch event
on behalf of the
local Chinese community.” Gore didn’t cancel.
9th chance: On April 25, White House aide Harold Ickes sent
the vice president a memo advising him that the April 29 luncheon in Los
Angeles would
raise $325,000. Gore didn’t march down the hall and put an end to it.
10th chance: Within 24 hours of the Ickes memo, Gore got
briefing materials from “DNC Finance” clearly stating that the “DNC
luncheon” he would attend on April 29 was at the Hsi Lai temple. Gore
didn’t pick up the phone and scrap the plan.
11th chance: Flying to Los Angeles on April 29, Gore was
accompanied by at least one staffer, Caren Solomon, who previously had
discussed the event as a “fund-raiser” in e-mails. Yet Gore kept Air
Force Two on course to L.A.
12th chance: On the ride from the airport, Gore by his own
admission saw from his briefing book that he was hosting an event at a
temple with the DNC, yet he didn’t turn the limo around.
13th chance: Arriving at the temple at about 12:30 p.m., Gore
was greeted by his long-time fund-raiser Hsia, DNC vice-chairman of
finance Huang,
DNC co-chairman Don Fowler and DNC treasurer Bob Matsui. Yet the throng
of fund-raisers gave him no pause.
14th chance: At lunch in the temple’s dining hall, Gore sat at
the head table with Master Hsing, Hsia and Ted Sioeng, a heavy DNC
contributor and
suspected Chinese agent who owned a pro-Beijing newspaper in Los
Angeles. Yet Gore didn’t get up and leave.
15th chance: During the hour lunch, at least two guests recall
fund-raising actually being discussed from the lectern — in the
presence of the vice president. In fact, China-born donor Sherry Shaw,
who also sat at Gore’s table, said Matsui took the podium and reassured
guests that it was “OK to give contributions at the Hsi Lai temple.”
Matsui introduced Gore as the guest of honor.
Gore could have walked out at that point, yet he stayed glued to his
chair. If Gore truly didn’t know he was hosting an illegal event by
then, it’s not his ethics voters need to worry about. It’s his
intelligence.
Birthright citizenship is a breach in the border
Daniel McCarthy