Depends on What the Meaning of Flip-Flop Is
EDITORIAL Depends on What the Meaning of Flip-Flop Is Last fall, Al Gore launched his most ambitious reinvention yet: of his own persona. He changed the color of his suits, hired new campaign...
...The Des Moines statement, Shrum insisted, was merely a repetition of what Gore said in New Hampshire...
...Proof that he did so can be seen in Bradley's adroit rejoinder, which gets it precisely right: "You issue orders...
...He never said in the New Hampshire debate that he would inquire into their personal convictions...
...Watts for photo-ops, but don't really care about African-Americans...
...Gore—if you become president, would you nominate members of the Joint Chiefs who only support your gay policy...
...And soldiers are good soldiers, and they follow your orders...
...He doesn't even apologize...
...But let there be no confusion about what Bill Clinton's legacy is: Al Gore embodies it, and he's running for president...
...And I think that would require those who wanted to serve on the position of, on the Joint Chiefs, to be in agreement with that policy...
...The screw-ups themselves were not Clintonian...
...Because the capping performance came when Gore's number one attack dog, Bob Shrum, did a bad James Carville imitation on Meet the Press, trying to bully his host and another guest into a politically useful confusion about what Gore had said...
...She does a fantastic job...
...GORE: That was the spirit of the call...
...A political disaster area of his own making needed quick cleaning up...
...Clinton's embarrassing use in an interview of the "abuse excuse...
...Clintonism has a record of success at the polls, and that may be what Gore is counting on...
...Richard Starr, for the Editors...
...President Clinton's had great difficulty...
...He changed the color of his suits, hired new campaign staff, moved his headquarters to Nashville, and sent his flacks out to spread the word that, after seven years of loyal servitude to Bill Clinton, he was now his own man...
...Nice try...
...As commander in chief, a president is giving orders, in effect, or he is, he is the superior of the officers that are reporting to the commander in chief in the chain of command...
...What I meant to convey," he went on, "was I would not tolerate, nor would any commander in chief, nor would any president tolerate orders not being followed...
...She . . . How Clintonian...
...Bradley, would you, sir...
...COURIC: . . . saying it would hurt the cause of all children...
...He could have said, simply, I goofed in the heat of debate, I misspoke...
...Watts because they have no program, no policy...
...Powell, I know, General Powell sent you a note saying he was offended . . . GORE: Mm-hmm...
...No, not at all...
...COURIC: . . . and disappointed...
...Gore apparatchik Donna Brazile, on the other hand, crudely accused the retired general of being an Uncle Tom for the Republican party...
...And soldiers are good soldiers...
...The Joint Chiefs as well as the Congress have been a principal obstacle to that particular policy...
...He urged the campaign not to play the race card . . . GORE: Mm...
...GORE: I have rejected the notion of litmus tests on the Supreme Court by saying that there are ways to find out the kind of judgment somebody has without posing a specific litmus test...
...You might think that comparisons with Clinton's notorious postmodern lawyering—"it depends on what the meaning of the word is is"—are the last thing Gore would want to inspire...
...So two days later, Gore calls the traveling press corps together in Des Moines to try to explain himself better on the issue...
...JENNINGS: Mr...
...That word wasn't used...
...Because this is how he learned to play the game from Bill Clinton...
...Bradley used the phrase, and you've both talked about gays in the military...
...BRADLEY: I—I can say that in much shorter words, I think, and that is when you're president you are commander in chief, and you issue orders...
...There's that hearing problem, again...
...I would try to bring about the kind of change in policy on the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that President Harry Truman brought about after World War II in integrating the military...
...In other words, will it be a litmus test...
...Did you apologize for those comments...
...We don't presume to offer counsel to the voters in Democratic primaries...
...Obviously not...
...Here is what actually transpired in the debate moderated by Peter Jennings in New Hampshire on January 5: JENNINGS: I'd like to ask you both a question about a litmus test, if I may...
...Why, then, does he keep insisting that it's somebody else's fault—"that's what you heard"—when he misspeaks...
...If you become president—I'll ask you one at a time, you first Mr...
...Gore's blundering pledge to subject Joint Chiefs of Staff appointees to a gratuitous loyalty test on the issue of gays-in-the-military was the sort of gaffe his glib boss rarely commits...
...This, then, was Al Gore's test...
...Al Gore plainly screwed up, fundamentally misconceiving the relationship between the commander in chief and his top military officers...
...He made that abundantly clear last week...
...And in a recent interview, she said that Republicans use blacks like General Colin Powell—a former chairman, of course, of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—and Congressman J.C...
...Yes, that probably is what he now wishes he had said...
...And here is what he says: "I didn't use that term, litmus test...
...Well, then: "That is not what I meant to convey—that's what you heard...
...Gore doesn't regret that his aide is a racial demagogue...
...So what did he do...
...This is the regret of the convict—no, he didn't do anything wrong, but he sure is sorry they locked him up for it...
...I defy you—I'll bet you 10 bucks...
...What he said both times was that he would insist that people appointed to the Joint Chiefs of Staff agree to support his policy as president...
...Gore and Shrum are less extravagant: Clin-tonian to the core, but only 10 bucks' worth...
...Now consider Gore's effort to recover from his Joint Chiefs gaffe...
...I know you spoke with General Powell...
...Carville, at least, had the class to offer a hundred thousand dollars last summer when he was similarly attempting to sow confusion about Mrs...
...Here's Shrum: "There's no flip-flop, and it's the same statement...
...For Al Gore is still, and will always be, Bill Clinton's man...
...Find him saying that he's going to examine their personal convictions...
...His litmus test is the constitutional one, civilian control of the military...
...Instead, he chose the Clintonian route: You don't understand the meaning of the words I used...
...I think that it's a little different where the Joint Chiefs of Staff are concerned, because you're not interfering with an independent judicial decision...
...They'd rather take pictures with black children than feed them...
...A consultation process takes place, certainly, in which you hear their view, but when you follow an order, no matter— I'm sure that there are people in the military today that don't agree with President Clinton on 50 things...
...You both believe that gays should have the right to serve openly in the military...
...Republicans bring out Colin Powell and J.C...
...JENNINGS: So, I understand it correctly, you would only nominate members of the Joint Chiefs if they supported your gay support— GORE: Here—I think that the new policy has to be implemented in a way that accomplishes the goal, and yet recognizes the practical challenges that the military leadership will have to confront in making that change...
...But of course he did...
...And yes, I would make that a requirement...
...Let me put on the screen exactly what she said...
...Here he was on the January 10 Today show, under interrogation by Katie Couric: COURIC: Let's talk about your campaign manager, Donna Brazile's comments...
...They play the game because they have no love and no joy...
...I would insist, before appointing anybody to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that that individual support my policy...
...But my sense is that when you're president of the United States, military people are loyal to their commander in chief, whatever the policy is that the commander in chief calls for for the country, and that's what I expect them to do if I'm president of the United States and we move towards gays in the military—which I intend to do...
...So, yes...
...She's the first African-American to manage a presidential campaign...
...And Bill Clinton—give him this much credit—has always worked respectfully with former Joint Chiefs chairman Colin Powell...
...Rather, he regrets that Colin Powell "heard" an insult...
...But I regretted the—the way he heard Donna's comments...
...He turned Clintonian: aggressively dishonest and self-righteously shifty...
Vol. 5 • January 2000 • No. 18
