-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~> eLerts It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free! http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/1/_/356655/_/977540659/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------_-> Subject: Al Gore's Last Letter to Bill Christopher Ruddy Monday, Dec. 18, 2000 Wrote: ======================================================== Office of the Vice President December 18, 2000 Dear Bill: I read with amazement yesterday's New York Times. No doubt your spin people planted their story that you alone will lead the Democratic Party after you leave the White House. I am the one who should be the torchbearer for the party. I won more popular votes than you ever did in any election. By any measure, I should lead the party because I should have a political comeback in 2004 and gain the office I really won in 2000. But you encouraged me to pursue the recount, and now I am a political corpse. Perhaps you knew this would be the result. Thank you so much! I must admit that Tipper had told me never to trust you and Hillary. She said from the beginning you were using me and would dump us. In 1992, as your running mate, you used my Beltway connections that my father and I had built up over four decades. I gave you the entree to New York's Democratic establishment, to the circle I had networked for decades. And all my Hollywood contacts were yours. They accepted you because of me, even though they saw you as an Arkansas yahoo. During the ’92 campaign you made great hay of my duty in Vietnam, you cited my Washington and foreign policy experience, my great relationship with Tipper – all the things you needed to complete the circle you and Hillary couldn't complete. In return, you spent the next eight years walking all over my reputation. Remember, Bill, I never had any ethical problems as a congressman and senator. Never once. I took my job seriously. I worked like a dog. Like you I wanted to be president, but I wanted to deserve the job. For eight years you made Tipper and me look ridiculous. We had to explain away your hillbilly friends in Whitewater, your lack of grief over your "friend" Vince Foster’s death. I put my reputation on the line again when Dick Morris told you to go out and raise $250 million so you could get re-elected in ’96. You recklessly broke every rule and, yes, I helped you at the Buddhist temple and more. Your compulsive behavior with Monica took the cake – a girl young enough to be Chelsea’s friend! Tipper told me we needed to divorce you folks. Remember the early days of the Monica scandal. I could have stepped forward and called for your resignation. You would have been finished. I would have been president. But Al Gore was always loyal. Loyalty, however, always ran one way with you and Hillary. Here I was, after eight years of being your errand boy. Then, when I am in the race of my life for the presidency to continue your "legacy" – Hillary goes out and announces she is running for New York senator. When Tipper heard this (of course, from CNN, since neither of you had the courtesy to let us know), she said, "Don’t laugh, Al. She is really going to do this. She wants to be president and she wants you out of the way." Hillary’s Senate race ultimately cost me the presidency. She stole my thunder, my spotlight, and undermined my fund-raising dollars, my support in the feminist circles. She also stole all the White House support YOU said would be mine in this race. You may think I am finished. Tipper and I are packing our bags. We’re heading back to Tennessee. We’ll be back. Send me a postcard when Robert Ray gets in contact with you after you leave office. Always yours, Al Gore -- Charles L Hamilton - Houston, TX - [EMAIL PROTECTED] Very Best Wishes for Health and Prosperity to You and Yours in the coming New Year. Happy Holidays! Please keep replies trimmed. That includes that annoying advertisement above - chas
