Vice President Gore's campaign was embarrassed to disclose over the
weekend that it has paid feminist author Naomi Wolf a monthly retainer of
$15,000 for fashion advice and other services, even sending her checks
through consulting firms to prevent Wolf's name from showing up on federal
reports. On ABC's
This Week," Gore defended Wolf's role, but it will be
amusing to hear him defend some of her ideas. She believes, for example,
that adults should help teenagers plot a middle course between sexual
promiscuity and abstinence, something she calls "sexual gradualism," which
the
Washington Post this morning describes as "masturbation, mutual
masturbation, and oral sex." Call it a Third Way.
But the really surprising thing is the money. That's a lot of dough to pay
an advisor — more than Gore's own salary, in fact. It helps explain why the
Gore campaign is beset with high overhead costs, compared to Bill Bradley
and George W. Bush.
Gore may not know how to spend money well, but Wolf sure knows how to earn
it. Here's what she had to say as the commencement speaker at Scripps
College, a women's school in Claremont, Calif., in May 1992: "Ask for
money in your lives. Expect it. Own it. Learn to use it. Little girls
learn a debilitating fear of money — that it's not feminine to insure we
are fairly paid for honest work. ... The only language the status quo
understands is money, votes, and public embarrassment."
Now Wolf has the money and Gore has the public embarrassment. But who will
get the votes?
