Cheney Goes on the Attack

R A N C H O   C O R D O V A, Calif., Sept. 19 -- Maybe Dick Cheney does have some attack dog in him.

Texas Gov. George W. Bush’s running mate went after Vice President Al Gore today more forcefully than ever. Cheney slammed Gore for everything from fraternizing with the entertainment industry to making deals with trial lawyers.

Gone to the Dogs?

Saying Gore “simply makes up things out of whole cloth and then repeats them over and over and over again until he’s called on it,” Cheney moved to keep alive a controversy over Gore’s honesty.

The Gore campaign acknowledged this week that the vice president had been basing an oft-repeated story about his mother-in-law’s prescription drug costs on a congressional study rather than on the family bills. Gore had been saying that his mother-in-law, Margaret Ann Aitcheson, spends more for arthritis medication than he pays to buy the same drug for his dog, Shiloh.

After his campaign released numbers showing the ratios between his family’s drug spending and the actual figures he cited, Gore said, “The issue is not her.”

Hollywood Bash

Cheney also criticized Gore for attending fund-raisers with entertainment industry executives while bashing the media for marketing violence and sex to children.

“We’ve seen him on the one hand campaign on the basis that he’s on the side of moms and dads, with respect to worrying about what’s peddled to our kids,” said Cheney. “At night, he goes and raises money from the same people and seems prepared to say virtually anything to any audience, and to switch from audience to audience.”

Cheney said he is not calling for censorship of the entertainment industry, only public condemnation — and consistency from the Democratic ticket.

“I think public officials can make it clear that we think that’s unacceptable behavior. What you should not do, is go hobnob with the same folks, as they raise millions of dollars and participate in an event, apparently, where they made fun of those people who are concerned about their conduct. That’s what I find unacceptable.”