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Mrs. Cheney says Gores abased themselves for political gain

Human Events, Oct 20, 2000 by Pearcey, J Richard

Seeks Support of `People Who Understand the Moral Dimension of This Election'

In a speech at the Christian Coalition's "Road to Victory 2000" conference in Washington, D.C., Lynne Cheney emphasized the moral component of the presidential race and blasted the Gore-Lieberman ticket for its "problem with truth." She said the bounce the Democrats got from their convention lasted too long for comfort but that things now "are turning around" and "moving in the right direction."

Why the turn around? "I believe that a change came a few weeks ago, when people suddenly began to focus in on the fact that there is a strong moral element to this election," said the former director of the National Endowment far the Humanities. Her remarks at the Washington Hilton and Towers September 29 were interrupted by applause several times.

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Mrs. Cheney faulted the Gore-Lieberman approach to Hollywood, which she denounced for marketing to "9- and 10-yearolds materials that they have deemed suitable only for adults" and for advertising PG-13 movies on the Cartoon Network, "the net work my 4- and year-old grandchildren watch. . . . This is truly, truly shameful."

Mrs. Cheney accused the Democrats of "talking a good game." Thus Joe Lieberman has said what Big Entertainment is doing is awful, and Gore has promised they're really going to get tough with Hollywood. But "at night," however, they're attending fundraisers, such as a recent "big party in New York" where they "smiled politely while R-rated jokes were told, while. . . people concerned about issues like the pollution of our culture . . . were made fun of and derided. . . . Joe Lieberman and Al Gore smiled pleasantly and took the money and went on to run his election."

Then, said Mrs. Cheney, they held a fundraiser in Hollywood, during which "they not only listened to bawdy humor," but they also listened to a comic "make fun . . . of Gov. Bush's religion."

'A Problem With Truth'

Why the, day-and-night difference? They "wanted America's parents to think that their ticket . . . was on the side of parents."

Mrs. Coney praised Mrs. Gore for her efforts in the early to mid-'80s to get content labels on recordings. But then "in 1987, when her husband decided to run for President, they took her to Hollywood, and they apologized. . . . They went out and abased themselves, bowed down before people in Hollywood who were producing the culture that Mrs. Gore previously understood is so damaging to our children."

Mrs. Cheney said, `This is a problem with truth, isn't it?" And she showed how this is a problem that permeates the Gore campaign-everything from Gore-talk about prescription drugs and mothers-inlaw, to whether Gore was in Congress when the "Strategic Oil Reserve was created," to the pretension that the Democratic ticket is reasonable on pro-life issues when, in fact, it is so extreme as to celebrate the human pesticide RU-486 (see "Conservative Forum" item, page 20) and so extreme as to "support one of the most horrendous outrages against life-partial-birth abortion."

Mrs. Cheney talked about the moral imperative behind Bush's education planto not allow any child to be left behind and `unable to participate in a society, unable to know the blessings of prosperity." She said the Bush plan will financially empower parents to free their children from schools that fail to educate.

She also addressed the question of whether Americans are better off now than eight years ago. Economically, yes, but she said the good times "started a long time before Bill Clinton" was elected President. And besides, she said, we are not better off in noneconomic areas such as education, where reading has not improved in eight years, and where math-progress is so slight that, "if we continue to improve at the same rate, in 125 years, our kids will do as well as the kids in Singapore."

Mrs. Cheney said in a "Bush-Cheney Administration, nobody is going to apologize for defending our children" or for "being on the side of parents." She said we "will tell the truth, will value life by promoting adoption, by promoting parental notification, and I have heard George Bush pledge that when a bill prohibiting partialbirth abortion comes across his desk, he will sign it."

Mrs. Cheney applauded the support of "people who understand the moral dimension of this election," and said, "I think we will prevail. With your help, we will prevail." She could well have echoed Lady Margaret Thatcher, who said recently in Washington that the key to this election is "turnout, turnout, turnout."

Mr. Pearcey, who is managing editor of HUMAN EvENTS, is writing a book on worldview, politics and culture.

Mrs. Cheney says Gores abased themselves for political gain

Human Events, Oct 20, 2000 by Pearcey, J Richard

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