Gore presents new image of lead attack dog .
Michael Posner
CHICAGO 1996-08-26
No more mild-mannered and meek Al Gore , the vice president and likely heir apparent to President Bill Clinton , emerged on Monday as the new Democratic attack dog leading a front-line assault on Bob Dole and House Speaker Newt Gingrich .
While Clinton takes a train trip to the Democratic Convention that will renominate him on Wednesday for a second term , Gore is the bright star in the convention city now .
Crowds anxiously wait for his appearances , thrusting out hands for him to grip as they scream " 12 more years " -- a wishful hope to eight years of Gore after a Clinton re-election .
Over a 15-hour span from Sunday evening to Monday morning , so many people jammed Gore events that the fire marshal stopped members of Congress , reporters and others from entering a pro-Israel rally and a meeting of the New York delegation .
In his appearances , the often stiff and wooden Gore seemed transformed into a new energetic , gesturing " pol " as he ripped into Republican presidential nominee Dole and Gingrich , who has emerged as the favorite right-wing foil of Democrats .
Gore told a roaring labor rally of about 1,000 union workers that Dole and Gingrich were the virtual personifaction of evil , without even mentioning that former Housing Secretary Jack Kemp is Dole 's running mate .
" With equal measures of ignorance and audacity this two-headed monster of Dole and Gingrich has been launching an all out assault on decades of progress of behalf of working men and women , " Gore said to whoops of " 12 more years . "
" They want to drive you out of politics and they ca n't , " he added . "
They want to silence your voices in elections . "
At a downtown hotel Monday , the 48-year-old Gore gave Wisconsin delegates a taste again of the new Gore .
" I want you to ask this question .
What would Wisconsin face if the same extremist coalition , the Gingrich / Dole Congress , also controlled the executive branch ? "
Gore said .
Noting the next presidential term will probably see two or three Supreme Court justice nominations , he warned , " Their extremist agenda would come out of the Gingrich Congress , into and through the Dole White House , down through the Supreme Court . "
He painted a scene of horrors he saw if Republicans controlled the White House and the Congress they hold now . "
Our personal and religious liberties would be at risk .
Medicare would be at risk of withering on the vine .
Medicaid would be at risk of being taken away from poor children .
Education would be at risk .
The environment would be at risk from the polluters that control that coalition , " he said .
His new style mixed an assault on Republicans with what he sees as " productive opportunity , a vision for the future that lifts up working families , that builds Wisconsin stronger , that builds America stronger .
With your help we can re-elect Bill Clinton . "
Dole 's tax cut plans were called " deja-voodoo economics .... It 's a warmed-over plan that failed and drove our economy into a ditch .
We got burned once and we wo n't let that happen to our nation again . "
Gore ridiculed Dole 's defense of the tobacco industry , praised Clinton for " courage " in advancing regulations of it .
To the delegates of Wisconsin , a leading dairy state , Gore had the right audience in poking fun at Dole 's comparison to addiction to tobacco to those who ca n't tolerate milk .
" Some people say milk is bad for you , " Gore said as Wisconsin delegates held aloft a plastic inflated cow .
He praised Clinton for vetoing the Republican Congress ' attempt to repeal parts of the Clean Air Act , and criticized Republicans for " slashing money to combat drugs in schools . "
" The choice has never been starker , the stakes today have never been higher , " Gore said . "
We 're not going to let them get away with that . "