Gore Addresses NAACP Convention

July 12 -- Vice President Al Gore delivered a spirited, preacher-like speech to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People today, accusing his Republican rival, Texas. Gov. George W. Bush, of only paying lip-service to the interests of the black community.

“I am a member of the NAACP … I have come here not just in an election-year, but year after year,” the presidential candidate said, in a thinly veiled slap at Bush, who addressed the group’s convention a day earlier. “I have worked with you, I have stood with you, I am proud to have won some battles alongside you.”

‘Talk is Cheap’

Although he stopped short of mentioning his opponent by name, Gore repeatedly mocked Bush’s call for new cooperation between the NAACP and the Republican Party.

“I just happened to see some of your convention on Monday,” he joked, drawing laughter from his enthusiastic audience. “And I know that you heard some nice-sounding words on Monday afternoon. But I remembered what scripture teaches.”

Gore then quoted a biblical verse, the meaning of which he summed up as, “Talk is cheap. It’s deeds that matter.”

Bush aides bristled at the suggestion that his efforts to cast himself as “a different kind of Republican” are insincere.

“The governor has made great inroads here in Texas with African-American and Hispanic citizens,” insisted campaign spokesman Ray Sullivan, “and is sincere in his desire to do so at the national level.”

According to Gore aides, the vice president decided to step up the level of the anti-Bush rhetoric in his remarks to the NAACP today only after Bush’s speech to the group generated a round of mostly positive publicity. Earlier drafts of Gore’s address, the aides said, were considerably less vitriolic.

Bringing Down the House

The vice president also continued his weeklong assault against what he is calling the “Do-Nothing-for-People” Republican-led Congress.