Clinton’s Line-Item Veto Call Not Echoed by Gore

Bill Clinton and Al Gore have much in common, but they don’t agree on the idea of giving the President line-item veto authority over the budget, Gore noted here Friday. Clinton is in favor of it. Gore is not.

The Tennessee senator made his comments during a friendly television interview with the Rev. Jesse Jackson on “Both Sides Now,” to be televised tonight on CNN.

“During his years as a governor, he used that tool to balance the budget 12 years in a row. He likes the idea of a President having a line-item veto. And I understand all that,” Gore said.

“But my experience has been primarily in the legislative branch of government. And I maybe feel more strongly that the balance between the executive and legislative branches of government needs to be protected.”

On a broader front, Clinton and Gore also do not agree with all the various solutions to environmental problems that Gore proposes in his best-selling book, “Earth in the Balance,” and the senator has somewhat toned down his rhetoric on environmental issues.

But Gore made light of their disagreement on some issues, saying: “He wanted somebody with a mind of his own, who was strong enough to say we believe this and fight for it.”

Earlier on Friday, Gore delivered his second space-policy address of the week, telling workers at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne that a Clinton-Gore Administration would set priorities for a civil space program that emphasizes, among other goals, the use of space-based technologies to help clean up the Earth.

Gore, who chairs the Senate subcommittee on science, technology and space, criticized the Bush Administration for “mismanagement” that he said has “perilously weakened our space program.”