Report: Clinton, Gore Not on Speaking Terms

NEW YORK, June 5, 2001 -- -- Former President Bill Clinton and hisvice president Al Gore are now so estranged that they are nolonger on speaking terms as of the end of May, according to anarticle in Vanity Fair magazine released Monday.

Contrary to conventional wisdom that their rift was sparkedby the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the chill between Clinton and hisvice president dates to much earlier days in their politicalpartnership, sources in both camps said in the latest issue ofthe magazine.

According to Vanity Fair contributing editor Marjorie Williams, the popularimage of the two men as good friends andconfidants who enjoyed one of the closest working relationshipsever between a president and vice president was never more thanmedia hype that began during their first campaign together in1992.

‘Clinton Drove Gore Nuts’

The schism between the two men has widely been attributedto Gore's bitterness over Clinton's affair with Lewinsky, theimpeachment that followed and Gore's view that the scandal costhim the 2000 election.

But strains that burst into the open following Gore'srazor-thin loss to George W. Bush had existed under the surfacefor a long time, Vanity Fair reported.

"Clinton drove Gore nuts," a former Gore aide told themagazine. "Gore's much more disciplined in terms of how he makesdecisions and the way he demands things to happen. There'snothing more irritating as vice president than to be waitingaround for a Clinton meeting that starts 45 minutes late."

A former White House official adds, "The idea that thisrelationship just went off the skids when Monica came along ...is wrong. It was all there, in a deep and profound way, longbefore Monica Lewinsky ever showed up."

Blaming Each Other?

According to another source with ties to both camps, theirreparable break came on June 16, 1999, the day Gore announcedhis candidacy. Appearing the same day in a Diane Sawyerinterview, Gore said three times that the president's behaviorhad been "inexcusable."