Presidential Campaigns 1996

Vice President Al Gore was interviewed in Washington for the Justice Department's preliminary investigation of whether he and President Clinton illegally benefited from campaign ads by the Democratic Party in the 1996 elections. Justice Department investigators interviewed Clinton on Monday. Gore voluntarily agreed to the interview and will continue to cooperate fully, his lawyers said. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno began the 90-day inquiry in September and must decide by Dec.

Vice President Al Gore was interviewed in Washington for the Justice Department's preliminary investigation of whether he and President Clinton illegally benefited from campaign ads by the Democratic Party in the 1996 elections. Justice Department investigators interviewed Clinton on Monday. Gore voluntarily agreed to the interview and will continue to cooperate fully, his lawyers said. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno began the 90-day inquiry in September and must decide by Dec.

A federal judge Friday dismissed a lawsuit by Ross Perot's Reform Party, which claimed that the laws that govern federal elections and campaign funding are unconstitutional and enforced in a discriminatory way against third parties. U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker said the campaign funding law, which provides different amounts of federal money to presidential candidates based on their parties' share of the vote in the last election, was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1976.

Bob Dole offered to testify before Sen. Fred Thompson's committee (Oct. 24). Why? Because the White House videotapes prove a deliberate plan by Clinton/Gore to violate finance limits set on both presidential campaigns in 1996. Dole was limited to $37 million of hard money after the primaries, and so was Bill Clinton. But starting in mid-year 1995, Clinton diverted soft money to a massive ad campaign against Dole and the Republicans, using commercials specifically directed and sometimes rewritten by Clinton himself.

Presidential candidate Herman Cain has made a splash with his "9-9-9" tax plan, which drew the focus of much of this week's Republican debate on the strength of its catchy simplicity. The plan — were it to surmount dead-on-arrival predictions — would amount to a dramatic benefit to wealthy Americans and a greater burden on the poor and middle class, according to one analysis. But it is proving a hit with voters who say they're fed up with loopholes and tax breaks for corporations, and with many tea party activists who want government out of their affairs.

WHAT does it mean when the president of the United States sits in the Oval Office around the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks with conservative journalists and wonders whether America is in the midst of another great religious revival? Or when he talks about the war in Iraq and the fight against terrorism "as a confrontation between good and evil" and mentions that many of his supporters say they're praying for him and the first lady?

While White House officials last week were coping with the numbing news that the Justice Department may appoint no fewer than three new special prosecutors to investigate allegations against the Clinton administration, they at least had plenty of company in their misery. Consider a few other snapshots from the campaign trail in the first week of September.

At times this summer, Al Gore's race for the White House has seemed scripted less by Theodore White than Danielle Steele. New campaign aides are squabbling with old ones, key staffers are fretting about how they fit in and the man brought in to ensure order is instead sparking controversy.