September 22, 2000

8:30 PM

WORLD EXCLUSIVE: GORE MOLE SUSPECTED TO HAVE INFILTRATED BUSH CAMPAIGN; FBI MOVES IN; DEBATE PREP TAPE EXPOSED BREACH This could be big. I remember when I read about the whole Moncia dress incident on the Drudge Report and look what happened... I hope to god it is not true, I couldn't stand Bush winning because of something like this.

PS, don't yell at me for the caps, it's Drudge. What do you expect?
posted by Brilliantcrank (5 comments total)

I'd expect you to get the story from a a much more reliable source. Far more likely, Bush's 21st Century Plumbers Unit used the tape as bait to get Gore to use it improperly, but the recipient did the right thing and turned it over to the FBI and removed himself from Gore's debate prep team. Now they've traced the tape back to the sender, who has to LIE LIE LIE like crazy that he was working for Gore and not Bush in order to keep from sinking his boss's campaign. Will the "mole" be willing to go to jail to protect Dubya and screw Al? Well, you can certainly expect he'll have more money waiting for him when he gets out than the "Big Brother" contestants.
posted by wendell at 10:10 PM on September 22, 2000

I would have been surprised to learn that the presidential campaign currently under way was NOT shot through with dirty tricks, spying, sabotage, and generally unethical behaviour. A quick look at the history of the candidates, the corporations who paid for them, and the office they're trying to attain clearly shows that hanky-panky is as much part of the game as cheesy pop music and red-white-and-blue logos.

-Mars
posted by Mars Saxman at 12:52 AM on September 23, 2000

Gore talked about the debate tape issue when he was on Letterman a few days ago. Gore seemed less worried than Drudge.
posted by tamim at 1:24 AM on September 23, 2000

The story has been floating around for more than a week -- the tape was turned over to the FBI when Gore's debate coach received it, and the wires all covered it then.
posted by rcade at 10:12 AM on September 23, 2000

I notice over at one of the right-wing boards (no linkage for them, the CREEPs), they're all hot spouting ignorantly about Tom Downey as if he were some sort of skulking spy and not a Representative. Theories have run from: Downey got a guilty conscience and called in the FBI, and now can't show his face at Gore HQ for fear of being crucified for exposing the secret debate preparations; Gore realized that the FBI was hot on the trail already, and had an upstanding scapegoat contact them first, with or without actually copying the tape first; Gore found that Downey was being disloyal with a conscience at tried to SET HIM UP by sending him the tape, but Downey called the FBI too quick; etc. Then there's the counter-argument hat this was a Bush feint ...

All of which, including the possibility of a Gore mole in the Bush campaign, are considerably more complicated, to ridiculous lengths, than the possibility that some disgruntled low-level Bush staffer dropped the tape in the mail for kicks and is presently enjoying watching the headlines.

The irony is that there's so little in something like this that could be of practical use to a truly well-prepared presidential campaign. Maybe anticipating a line of attack or two, but it's so out of date by the first debate, even, that it's useless for that. Experienced consultants can probably give you a better idea of what Bush will say in the debate than a month-old practice videotape.
posted by dhartung at 12:33 AM on September 24, 2000