Column: Gore's last resort

The Gore Democrats are revealing their true colors. Now that it appears their man is slouching to defeat, they are turning mean.

They are no longer trying to make the case that Gore is the better man to run the country over the next four years (an argument that a majority of Americans has rejected, as unanimously confirmed by the various presidential tracking polls).

They are reverting to their usual tactic when desperate to turn the political tide their way: They've gone into attack mode.

The latest example is the vicious ads against George W. Bush sponsored by the NAACP, long-time supporter of the party of Gore. In it, the daughter of James Byrd, the Jasper, Texas, man who was dragged to death behind a truck, suggests that the Republican governor was somehow insensitive to the racially motivated murder of her father.

When Bush "refused to sign hate-crimes legislation," she laments, "it was like my father was killed all over again."

Of course, what the NAACP's ad neglects to mention is that two of Byrd's three killers were condemned to death in Bush's Texas, while the third was sentenced to life.

And, oh yes, while the NAACP faults Bush for not supporting the particular version of hate-crimes legislation that it favors (as if the punishment of Byrd's killers would have been any more severe), the once-respected civil rights organization actually opposes the death penalty.

So if the NAACP had its way, two of Byrd's killers would receive a more lenient punishment than the Texas courts have actually imposed.

The pro-Gore media also has played its part in the Democratic effort to smear Bush.

For instance, a fortnight ago, CNN aired an interview with Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt in which the pornographer accused Bush of facilitating an abortion for an ex-girlfriend.

Flynt provided absolutely no evidence to support his charges. Yet CNN allowed him to slander the Republican before millions of television viewers.

Interesting that during the third presidential debate between Bush and Gore, liberal moderator Jim Lehrer went out of his way to correct a misstatement during the second debate that reflected badly upon the Democrat.

I was wrong when I said Vice President Gore's campaign commercial had called Governor Bush a "bumbler," said the chastened Lehrer.

"That specific charge was made in a press statement by Gore campaign spokesman Mark Fabiani," he further explained.

There were no such apologies to Bush by the folks at CNN for the ad hominem attack on his good name and reputation that they were all too happy to air.

And Bush is not the only target of attacks by Gore sympathizers. Ralph Nader also has discovered what happens when Democrats turn mean. The pro-Gore New York Times has been crusading to get the Green Party candidate to drop out of the presidential race, fearing he will cost the Democrats votes in key battleground states.

First, the "Gray Lady" (the NY Times) was polite, merely dismissing the consumer advocate's campaign as merely "quixotic." But when it occurred to the Times that Gore did not have a lock on winning the presidency and that he would need every single vote he could muster, the Gray Lady got especially cranky.

Now Nader's campaign is "self-indulgent," the man himself an "ego run amok." And lest readers perceive that the Times protests too much, it assures, "We would regard Mr. Nader's willful prankishness a disservice to the electorate no matter whose campaign he was hurting."

Yes, of course.

So why wasn't the Times nearly so apoplectic about Ross Perot's third-party candidacy during the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections? Maybe because it knew that the third-party candidate was siphoning off more votes from the Republican than the Democratic candidate.

And pro-Gore interest groups also have joined the crusade to attack Nader. For instance, Planned Parenthood President Gloria Feldt declared that the Green Party candidate "just doesn't seem to care" about women's rights, even though Nader was pro-choice way back when Gore was still pro-life.

Then there are pro-Gore lawmakers around the country who are also besmirching Nader. Like California assemblywoman Carole Migden, who went so far recently as to insinuate that the consumer advocate is a closeted homosexual.

"Of course, I don't necessarily have that information," she said in an interview with a gay publication, which was subsequently reported by The San Francisco Chronicle.

"All I'm saying is that we believe he has strong ties to the community -- and has for years -- and hasn't been forthright about it."

Like the man they hope to elect, pro-Gore Democrats (such as Migden), their comrades-in-arms in the national media (such as CNN and The New York Times), and their special interest allies (such as the NAACP and Planned Parenthood) will say and do anything to win the White House.

But the American people have wearied of such hateful politics. And that's why Al Gore will receive his much-deserved comeuppance on Election Day.

(Joseph Perkins is a columnist for The San Diego Union-Tribune and can be reached at Joseph.Perkins@UnionTrib.com.)