Gore Looks South as He Stumps in North

On a snow-draped Saturday when the political world’s focus was riveted on South Carolina, Vice President Al Gore campaigned in New England--but focused, himself, on the drama being played out to the south.

“Neither of the two Republican candidates had the guts to take on the bigotry and call for the Confederate flag to be removed from the state capitol dome, even though 80% of the people of South Carolina were in favor of that,” Gore said in a rare news conference.

“Both of them,” he continued, shifting to the abortion debate, “were competing with one another to take away a woman’s right to choose.”

The subject of the flag, which flies over the South Carolina capitol dome, came up earlier Saturday after Gore began a three-hour question-and-answer session with potential Democratic voters in Springfield, Mass.

Taking his argument against the flag several steps beyond his earlier denunciations, he said Gov. George W. Bush of Texas and Sen. John McCain of Arizona were ignoring their own consciences to attract a group of bigoted voters. His own rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Bill Bradley, barely crossed his rhetorical horizon.

Gore called Bush’s decision to speak at Bob Jones University, a South Carolina institution that prohibits interracial dating, “unfortunate.” He criticized McCain for his campaign’s association with the editor of a magazine that publishes what Gore called “neo-Confederacy” documents and that attacks “Abraham Lincoln as if it was 1861.”

The vice president played down his differences with Bradley over gun control. Bradley has proposed licensing all handgun ownership.

“It’s not necessarily a bad idea,” Gore said. “I’m not opposed to it, but I haven’t proposed it because it has zero chance of ever being enacted, and you’re going to spend an enormous amount of political capital if you’re an incumbent president in an effort that has no payoff.

“If you focus on an achievable objective, you’re likely to make some real progress,” he said, adding: “Politically, I can see the virtue of it. But practically, I don’t think it has any chance whatsoever of being adopted.”

Gore has proposed that only purchasers of new handguns be required to produce such a license, with a photograph on it.

The flag issue was raised Saturday by an African American man who said he moved to Massachusetts 43 years ago from South Carolina.

McCain and Bush have said a decision on the flag is up to the people of South Carolina and have not said whether it should be flown over the capitol.

“They are competing today for the support of a swing group that could go either way, which includes many of those who are bigoted and support the flying of the Confederate flag above their state capitol precisely because they want to make a statement of resistance to justice and equality in our country,” Gore said.

“Because Sen. McCain and Gov. Bush are afraid of offending that group of people in South Carolina, such a small minority in South Carolina, they will not say what I betcha is really their secretly held views, that of course it is ridiculous to have the flag still flying above a state capitol.

“They may be preparing to count the votes in South Carolina today, but they have already lost, both of them, the struggle against their conscience where the Confederate flag is concerned.

“It’s not as if the Confederate battle flag went up over the state capitol of South Carolina in 1861 and stayed there all of this time. No. It went up after the Brown vs. Board [of Education] decision in the 1950s,” the vice president said, referring to the Supreme Court decision that outlawed segregation in the nation’s public schools, “and it has been flying there as a symbol of resistance to justice for African Americans.”

Gore spoke at Springfield Technical Community College, in an “open meeting” of Democrats who are undecided in the Democratic primary race.

Bradley, campaigning on the other side of the country, lauded his health care plan outside a community clinic in Seattle and criticized Gore for having a spotty record on universal health care.

Standing outside the Country Doctor Community Health Clinic on a sparkling morning with breathtaking mountain vistas, Bradley told about 100 people assembled that his proposal would provide a major infusion of money for clinics now struggling to help people without insurance.

“One of my dreams is that, at this time of unprecedented prosperity, we can address the distress that exists in our health care system today,” he said. He was joined by Seattle Mayor Paul Schell and Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, a former emergency room physician.

Bradley accused Gore of being inconsistent on universal health care, saying that Gore did not introduce one health care bill while serving in Congress and had opposed national health insurance. Then Gore supported President Clinton’s attempt at universal health care in 1993.

Washington holds a primary Feb. 29, but for Democrats it amounts to a straw poll because delegates to the Democratic National Convention will not be selected until March 7. That’s also the date of key primaries in California, New York and several other states.

Later Saturday, in a satellite interview with an Albany, N.Y., television station, a confident Bradley said he is optimistic about picking up steam in the next few weeks.

“I think March 7 is going to be take-off time for us,” Bradley said. “I think we’re going to win primaries. I think we’re also going to be fighting in Washington state, which is where I am now, on Feb. 29. I think we’re going to come out of March 7 surprising a lot of people with the wins that we have.”