"The Gore campaign knows that in the Age of Clinton facts don't matter.
What counts is ruthlessness." That's Paul Gigot's observation in his
Wall
Street Journal column this week, and it seems to be true of Democrats in
general. In a forum on Wednesday, Joe Andrew, chairman of the Democratic
National Committee, casually charged Republicans with trying to suppress
minority voting in this month's elections. No evidence for this claim was
presented, of course.
The shocker here was that somebody called him on it. Clifford May,
communications director of the Republican National Committee, was on the
panel with Andrew and refused to let the matter slide. "I suggested he was
knowingly lying in a concerted effort to paint Republicans as racist," May
recalls.
May sent a letter to Andrew the next day demanding a retraction and
apology. The DNC responded to press calls by issuing a list of supposed
examples of Republican efforts to suppress minority voting — examples
dating back to 1981 and counting, as May notes, "any attempt whatsoever to
prevent voter fraud" as suppression.
May believes the incident reveals a difference between the parties. "They
believe telling falsehoods is justified if it contributes to the defeat of
the enemy. Most Republicans don't think that way."
