Al Gore spent Feb. 7 campaigning with corrupt-AFSCME boss Gerald W. McEntee in the scandal-scarred DC37 and Republican Nat’l Comm. Chairman Jim Nicholson demanded to know why. “Al Gore wore a hardhat for his meeting at AFSCME District Council 37, and it’s a good thing,” said Nicholson. “At DC37, you need a hardhat to dodge the falling indictments!”
“What was Al Gore doing at AFSCME DC 37 just two weeks after an internal report identified widespread corruption within AFSCME, and pointed to [DC37] as the source of more than half of the fraud in the entire union nationwide?” Nicholson asked.
“You can judge a man by the company he keeps, and in Al Gore’s case, he’s keeping company with AFSCME President Gerald McEntee… Just two weeks ago, McEntee [was accused] of ‘turning a blind eye’ to the corruption that’s infested AFSCME.”
“We know what Al Gore’s getting out of his relationship with Gerald McEntee and [DC37],” Nicholson said. “The question is, what do McEntee and his cronies get? A commitment to that there’ll be ‘no controlling legal authority’ to go after union corruption in a Gore administration?” [RNC Media Release 2/8/00]
McEntee has been implicated in the Teamster’s money-laundering scandal that brought down Ron Carey. Other corrupt Gore backers include AFL-CIO boss Richard L. Trumka, who took the Fifth Amendment in the Teamsters investigation, and LIUNA boss Arthur A. Coia, who pled guilty to a corruption charge last month. This prompted the Wall Street Journal to note that “President Reagan and Vice President Bush had met with [Teamsters president Jackie] Presser while he was under federal investigation. …[T]he Reagan Adminstration [was warned] that ‘certain political alliances and well-timed political contributions can create the appearance of impropriety.'”
The Journal continued: “[M]aybe, that off-odor smell in the air is the Sleaze Factor, bubbling back to the surface of this campaign for the Presidency.” [Wall St. J. 2/11/00]