Gatlinburg, TN (WEB Wire Service) August 30, 1999 - The Dallas Evening News reported today that Vice President Gore would not answer the question as to whether or not he had ever smoked. They quoted the Vice President as saying. "I have not smoked in the last eight years and neither has my staff. We can sign an oath to that effect and I will do so when I am elected President. The United States of America can not and will not endure a President who smokes that evil weed. Not that the tobacco growers in Tennessee are evil. No, Sir! They are hard working Americans of the first degree. Why I remember hoeing it, cutting it, curing it, stacking it, and drying it during my vacations from my exclusive prep school. I know what it means to be a tobacco farmer because I have been there. I've walked in their boots. The reporters pressed him further but he refused to discuss his behavior before 1991. He said that he had always been faithful to Tipper and didn't even lust in his heart in an obvious reference to President Carter who was in Botswana overseeing an election in the Ngwato tribe and could not be reached for comment. Gore's campaign manager, Tony Cuelho, charged that this was a Republican campaign of personal vilification. He said it had to stop or the democratic system would fail. "The Republicans have launched a concerted effort to destroy the reputations of those elected by the people. They have no respect for the voters since they are the tools of big business and special interests. They will destroy our children and the elderly if they persist. Vice President Gore is clean. That's all the people want. He can't prove a negative." The New York Times reported that a fellow fraternity member of the Vice President from Harvard was lying in wait for Gore to deny having smoked. He was said to have incontrovertible evidence that Gore smoked while at Harvard. Sources close to the fraternity stated that a picture of Gore with a Camel cigarette was still in existence despite CIA and FBI seizures of the fraternity's historical records in 1990. Also a sweep of Gore's fraternity room by the Secret Service missed a Marlboro butt that was dropped in a beer bottle. The identity of the informer and the location of the evidence would not be revealed by the Times, citing freedom of the press and the protection of sources. The Times stated that DNA analysis of the cigarette butt made their informer credible and they were standing by the story. A leak from the Times indicates that the informer lost out to Gore for the favor of a Vassar student and has held a grudge to this day. |