Vice-Precedence Reviews the AL GORE Comic.

Hey Vice-Precedence Blog Readers.

Sorry for the long delay in posts, but if you are frequenting the Facebook page for "Vice-Precedence" as you should be of course, you can see that Jason and I are putting up some great links to keep you updated about everything going on VP wise.

As you probably remember Bluewater Comics is the creator and publisher of comics about everyone from Barack Obama to Bo Obama, with Sarah Palin, Michelle Obama, John McCain, J.K. Rowling and more in between. They published a Joe Biden comic that Jason and I reviewed here on the blog. Now this week their comic book biography of former VP Al Gore came out. So here's my review of it.

As I have come to expect with Bluewater, the cover art is good, but inside, the art is not only disappointing, but clearly mistakes have been made. On page 24 in an illustration that is supposed to show VP Gore and then Gov. George W. Bush making accusations against one another in the 2000 election, the illustrator made an error and has Bush angrily pointing and yelling at himself, as if into a mirror. Something I am sure Democrats around the country would like to imagine, but isn't really possible. Its supposed to be Gore yelling at him, but instead its a sloppy mistake.

On another page that is supposed to illustrate Gores centrist voting record and views, its simply a wide panel with ugly illustrations of bald people with no distinguishing facial features voting and one kneeling in prayer with the Statue of Liberty blindfolded for some reason. It's a terrible illustration. On the last page in the top panel, a jacket-less Gore has collapsed into the arms of an African-American man with another man looking down on Gore as if he is telling him to relax or calm down, while on the other side a woman seems to be holding back Tipper Gore (who is illustrated so generically throughout the comic its hard to tell if it IS her) who looks upset and perhaps furious. I must confess I don't have any idea what this scene is supposed to be about or if it is referencing some event in the life of the Gores that I don't know about. Its a strange, out of place panel that doesn't seem to really make sense. Throughout the book the art is just not very good and again, Bluewater uses pale colors that don't really leap off the page.

As for the writing, the story of Gore's life as told by Scott Davis who puts himself in as the narrator on the first page sitting on a lawn chair next to a penguin in the South Pole before the iceberg he's sitting on is hit by a ship, is done with Bluewaters usual simple style and admirable effort to be non-partisan and just state the facts. It points out Gore's successes, his failures, his redeeming qualities and flaws (such as his wooden manner and speaking style, know-it-all behavior, and penchant for hyperbole), in a fair way. It clearly states that some people think of Gore as an:

"arrogant, scripted liberal hypocrite...the embodiment of big invasive government."

while others see him as:

"...the idealistic conscience of his country"

It does a good job of distinguishing facts from opinions. Something I wish more writers, bloggers, and so-called reporters would do.

The story is told chronologically beginning with Gores background and upbringing between the privileged halls of Washington power and private schools and rural Tennessee where he could cut loose performing crazy stunts off the back of speed boats when his father--Senator Gore--wasn't working him harder than the hired help cleaning hog pens and clearing over 20 acres of hill land of timber with nothing more than a regular ax. As a child Gore was apparently a "perfect little gentleman" for the most part, but also something of a "tattletale" who also enjoyed dropping water balloons on passing limos from the roof of the ritzy Fairfax Hotel his family lived in when his father was serving in the Senate. He was called "A Wooden Apollo" by one of his high-school instructors, and the book illustrates well the Gore who while in Washington worked hard to be "The Senators Son" but who was more "relaxed, fun-loving, daring, impetuous, even a bit reckless" down in Tennessee. It does a fine job showing how Gore came by his philosophy of "Choosing the Hard Right over the Easy Wrong" and how he is an interesting combination of Washington elitism and Southern gentleman tinged with the ability to be self-deprecating.

The comic does an excellent job about covering Gore's service in Vietnam. It points out, as I did on my blog for Gores' birthday, that Gore could have used his fathers political connections in the Senate and his family wealth to stay out of Vietnam (like George W. Bush and Quayle did) or just done things to avoid service (like Bill Clinton and Dick Cheney did) but instead volunteered. So even though he may have embellished a little about his service to gain votes (a time honored American political tradition) he did at least serve in combat -- something that those other guys I listed couldn't say. Gore volunteered partly because he felt it was wrong that rich privileged young men like himself could avoid service while poor kids went in his place, and partly because the Nixon Administration had targeted his father's Senate seat and him avoiding military service would have been used against his father in the campaign. The comic points out that it was later revealed that the Nixon Administration did, in fact, delay his deployment to Vietnam because they didn't want Senator Gore to get any "sympathy votes" due to his son serving in combat and being possibly wounded or killed.

The comic also does a good job tracing his career from a reporter into the House, then the Senate and the Vice-Presidency. It doesn't go into Tippers crusade against dirty lyrics on albums and only touches on the car accident his son was in. On one page it clearly and accurately covers all the controversy in Florida in the 2000 Election. This is one of the strongest aspects of the book. Something I especially appreciated is how it describes how Gore changed the Vice-Presidency. Starting with John Adams famous quote about the insignificant nature of being the Veep, it shows how Gore became a powerful and influential VP, saying:

"Gore changed the very model of the Vice-Presidency from the guy who goes to state funerals to an Executive Branch advisor and policy partner."

Finally, Davis sums up Gores post 2000 triumphs with "An Inconvenient Truth" and the Nobel Peace Prize in a concise style with his final statement ringing true:

"...no matter what side of the political fence you reside, you must admit that Al Gore is one of the more important, accomplished, influential, and relevant politicians of the 21st century."

All this is well and good, but the book suffers from the middling at best art, and again as we pointed out in the Biden comic, errors of syntax that were probably typos that should have been caught before publication. For example, on the FIRST PAGE, in describing what might have happened if Gore had won the 2000 Election it says:

"President Gore responds the 9-11 attacks."

That's just sloppy proofreading. Other examples include:

"...He grew up in the amongst"

and

"Others point to his populist campaign did not distance itself from the disgraced Clinton presidency".

Still, by simply showing Gores successes and flaws and telling the story in a clear way, I have to say, its much better than the Biden comic and I recommend picking it up if you can.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.

Matt Saxe

Cheney and the CIA Plot-Part 3.

Well Vice-Precedence readers-its all coming together. As you know, I have been following the issues with Vice-President Cheney and the CIA. Its ranged from how furious the former VP is over Attorney General Holders investigation into the controversy of torture, the revelation of the CIA Assassination Squad, to lingering issues about the Valerie Plame outing.

I've posted previous blogs on all these since we started it back in June, and I encourage you to go back and re-read those. Now another break in this story-yesterday Federal Judge Emmett Sullivan ruled that the FBI must publicly reveal the majority of its interview with Cheney during the investigation into who leaked the identity of Valerie Plame. He said that limited parts could be withheld to protect national security or personal privacy, but 67 pages will be revealed. Plames name was leaked after her husband former Ambassador Joe Wilson wrote an article critical of the Bush Administrations intelligence reports justifying launching the war in Iraq.


As many of you remember the only person who was exposed and punished for having anything to do with the Valerie Plame leak to the press was Cheney's top aide and dear friend I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. During his trial, jurors found that Libby lied to the FBI and a grand jury about his conversations with reporters. Libby never served a day in jail since President Bush commuted his sentence-but he refused to pardon him and decided he was guilty, as was revealed in the TIME cover story I reported on here on July 29th-"The Final Days of Bush and Cheney".

Now with the court ordering the release of the former Vice-Presidents interview we can only speculate what will happen next. Libby told the FBI that it was "possible" that the Vice-President ordered him to reveal Plames name. Will Special Investigative Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald be put back to work? Will there be more hearings, what will these 67 pages expose? Thanks for reading, and I recommend going back and reading some of our previous blogs to learn more about this issue. Stay tuned here for the latest news on this and other breaking news on the Vice-Presidents.

Matt Saxe

Bush on Biden

A former Bush 43 speech writer was interviewed recently in GQ. With the kind of humor you wouldn't expect from someone who worked in that administration, he paints an oddly human picture of Bush, with a certain irreverence aimed at letting us see the former President's funny side. He weighs in on Palin and Biden (you can find the section, if brief, about Biden, here) with some unexpected ribbing (unexpected at least in him taking shots at Palin), and it's an interesting read.

Not a lot else in the VP world at the moment, but the article is worth checking out, though it's also worth thinking about how easy it is to be so rapt by an article written by a guy claiming to have the inside scoop and showing us this human side of Bush, when he was one of the elite few who got to help lie to us every day. Sure, he came in late in Bush's term, so he was part of damage control, most likely. But I don't trust the words of a speech writer or a publicist, especially when they claim to "finally be telling the truth" (not his words, just the jist of these sorts of essays).

Cynical? No. Just careful. I'd rather read Cheney's book, even if it is co-written (he never writes alone, famously writing alongside his wife before becoming VP). At least he'll say what he means, and I'll be pretty sure he isn't putting me on.

Good night, and good vice-presidenting.

Jason C. Klamm

Cheney VS W?

Hey Vice-Precedence Blog Readers!

I just want to go along with Jason and say how great a book "Bland Ambition" is. Several times while reading it I laughed out loud and was introduced to many facts I had never heard of and ideas I had rarely, if ever, thought about. Since the publication of "Bland" there hasn't been another book approaching its scope and level of scholarship and humor. There's a reason why the few books about this subject published since "Bland" use it so much, as Jason points out, because its the best right now. Hopefully our book can be just as good in its own way. On a personal note, Professor Tally is a very nice and open guy and has been a big supporter of getting this film made and we're grateful to him for his support and being a part of our film.

As for VP Cheney, on Monday "The Washington Post" had some comments from the former "enforcer" of the last administration that weren't exactly praise for his former boss. According to Cheney, President Bush "went soft" in his second term, and didn't take enough of his (Cheney's) advice on policy and caved in to criticism from the public and Congress-both of which Cheney doesn't have much respect for in my opinion. In fact, Cheney said that the fact that public opinion influenced President Bush's policies in his second term was an example of "moral weakness".

Cheney, it seems to me, has come around to these opinions since he started working more on his (STILL UNTITLED! ARGHH!) book and has examined those last days in office more closely. What with that recent cover-story in TIME exposing the friction and division between President Bush and VP Cheney in their final months in office over Scooter Libby, it seems that Cheney is trying to get his side of the story out even before his book comes out.

It seems that back at the end of his and Bush's term, besides being furious about the Presidents refusal to pardon Libby (as I reported in an earlier blog and was shown in TIME) he was also frustrated by the fact that President Bush was taking his advice less and less and showing that he was his own man and not Cheneys "Yes-Man" or puppet as many had said for seven years. To me, that's a good thing in a way-its all well and good to take advice from people you respect, but sometimes, you have to follow your own instincts, conscience, and gut. Especially if you're the President of the United States and you're calling yourself "The Decider".

"The Washington Post" story reported the following for their article, for which they interviewed associates working with Mr. Cheney on his book-here is this unnamed associates quote:

"In the second term, Cheney felt Bush was moving away from him, he said Bush was shackled by the public reaction and the criticism he took. Bush was more malleable to that. The implication was that Bush had gone soft on him, or rather Bush had hardened against Cheney’s advice. He’d showed an independence that Cheney didn’t see coming. It was clear that Cheney’s doctrine was cast-iron strength at all times — never apologize, never explain — and Bush moved toward the conciliatory,”

Very interesting.


Oh, and in case you were wondering, it looks like both his and President Bush's memoirs will both come out around the same time-the week of 9/11/11-the Tenth Anniversary of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. What will the former Presidents response be to all this? So far, nothing. Is he saving it all for his book? We'll see, and as soon as we know-you'll know.

Thanks for reading!

Matt Saxe

Cheney's Lackwanna Blues and His Pal Scooter

Well, if you've been following the news recently-you would have seen that Dick Cheney was being discussed EVERYWHERE.

Recently it was revealed that back in 2002 then-Veep Cheney advocated sending U.S. troops to upstate New York to the town of Lackwanna near Buffalo to capture suspected terrorists. According to a law professor that spoke with The New York Times it would have been the first deployment of the military on U.S. soil since the Civil War. Cheney thought it was a matter of national security and used a memo in the Justice Dept sent shortly after Sept. 11 to justify his idea. Attorney General Ashcroft, along with FBI Director Robert Mueller and Condoleeza Rice all were against the idea. President Bush made the ultimate decision to instead send FBI agents to arrest the suspected terrorists. These terrorist suspects known as the "Lackwanna Six" were rumored to be connected to Al-Queda and they all later pleaded guilty to terrorism related charges as they actually did have connections to Al-Queda and were "aiding and abetting enemies of the United States". So for those of you who think Bush was Cheney's puppet back in the early days of "The War on Terror" you might not be as right as you think.

Furthermore, according to a recent article in TIME Magazine, at the end of the Bush Administration, Bush and Cheney were at each others throats over the pardoning of Scooter Libby. Just a reminder for everyone-Scooter Libby was Vice-President Cheneys Chief of Staff, and he was convicted for interfering and obstructing justice in the investigation on who outed undercover CIA spy Valerie Plame. Plame was exposed after her husband-former Ambassador Joseph Wilson made severe criticisms over intelligence reports before the war in Iraq. Libby never went to jail, and President Bush did commute his sentence-but he decided that he would NOT pardon Libby. According to TIME, this infuriated Cheney, and in the final days in their term-Cheney constantly asked the President to pardon Libby.

The TIME article says that at one point, Cheney even got in the president's face, as Cheney badgered Bush about it in a pretty relentless and almost bullying way.

"Cheney really got in the president's face," a family source told Time, which also interviewed dozens of (of course) anonymous White House insiders. "He just wouldn't give it up."

"These last hours represent a climactic chapter in the mysterious and mostly opaque relationship at the center of a tumultuous period in American history," the report says. "It reveals how one question - whether to grant a presidential pardon to a top vice-presidential aide - strained the bonds between Bush and his deputy and closest counselor."

After the article came out, Vice-President Cheney also came out-swinging- with this response
"Scooter Libby is an innocent man who was the victim of a severe miscarriage of justice. He was not the source of the leak of Valerie Plame's name. Former Deputy Secretary of State, Rich Armitage, leaked the name and hid that fact from most of his colleagues, including the President. Mr. Libby is an honorable man and a faithful public servant who served the President, the Vice President and the nation with distinction for many years. He deserved a presidential pardon."

Well, it seems that President Bush disagreed with you Mr. VP, and since he's "The Decider" he made the decision and Libby was not pardoned. Bush believed he was guilty and felt no need to pardon him. For the President, it would seem that commuting his sentence and making sure he was never in jail were as much as he felt comfortable doing. Perhaps he was worried about his legacy and overturning the Justice system? Whatever, but the whole incident shows, just like in the case with the "Lackwanna Six" that Bush was not simply Cheney's go-along boy. That when he disagreed with his Vice-President, he wasn't afraid to go his own way.

On "The Early Show Saturday Edition," TIME assistant Managing Editor Michael Duffy said that Libby was the "vice president's top aide, long-time adviser on both domestic and foreign policy, and he got in trouble with the law. What we find fascinating is ... that the vice president pressed President Bush three times for this pardon. And even after the president had decided it once, twice, and with some finality, it kept coming back up.

"That was an interesting insight - a window into this relationship that was really the most important in the last ten years in our country, and not very well-reported, a hard-to-read, transparent, opaque, kind of very difficult relationship to understand, and this is the really first time anyone climbed into their back-and-forth.

"I think everyone on both staffs, the vice president's staff and the president's, realized this was coming to a head in a potentially very volatile way," Duffy said. "Everyone was quite nervous about it; both sides took fairly hard positions. The president at one point told his own personal lawyer that, if he had to take a poll on whether to give Libby a pardon, it would be 100-1 against in his staff.

"And so, by the time the Bush White House is coming to a close in the final three or four days, it's really kind of both sides are at loggerheads with each other. And in the end, Bush would just have to give the news to the vice president himself."

Both these stories make me wonder what else they disagreed about-and what will be revealed in Cheney's still untitled book. Stay tuned here for more.

Oh, and in other VP news, former VP Dan Quayle was on "Huckabee" on FOX News over the weekend, discussing the Palin resignation, the economy, and dealing with the press and being selected as VP. He agreed that his selection had some parallels with Palin-but keep in mind that he had been in Congress longer than Palin had been governor when she was selected. He did give this quote on Palin:

“I thought she got a bum rap. I think she's a very talented politician. I think from what I know, she's done a good job in Alaska."

Well, now you're up to date on whats going on in VP news. Stay tuned here for more and Thanks for Reading!
Matt Saxe