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Instead of criticizing his friend Mayor Penelas' ugly secessionist outburst, Gore sided with him.

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Will Albert Gore Uphold the Constitution?

by Toby Eglund

Gore photoAPRIL 4, 2000 . A few days ago, Vice-President Albert Gore did something that no Vice-President of the United States has done in recent memory: he publicly undermined the Constitution of the country he aspires to lead a year from now.

Surrounded by a bunch of Miami-area mayors, Gore's close ally, Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas had defied the federal government and threatened the nation with a breakdown of law and order in his city if the government finally moved to return Elian Gonzalez to his father in Cuba. Insurgency was in the air. One could almost see the specters of George Wallace, and of Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus in Little Rock, in 1957, swirling above the mayors' heads.

Twenty-four hours later, instead of criticizing his friend Penelas for his ugly secessionist outburst, Gore sided with him by asking that federal law be, once more, trampled in the Elian Gonzalez case, and that the child's fate be decided in a politically pliable Florida family court.

Gore's move has been widely seen as just another politician's craven pandering to Cuban-American voters in a state that holds the fourth largest presidential vote bounty. After all, George W. Bush, his likely Republican rival, has been expressing similar views for a while. However, Mr. Bush is not a sitting Vice-President, and he is not a friend of the secessionist Mr. Penelas, a Democrat.

It has also been said that by jumping ship on the Elian case at a crucial moment, Gore has finally emerged from under Clinton's shadow, completing his transformation from Vice-President to presidential candidate. No one seems to remember that, we, the people, hired him for the VP job through January 2001, and that he is in breach of contract.

What Gore did may ultimately prove to be of little consequence to poor Elian, Gore's own vote-getting machinations, or even to Cuban-Americans and their tiresome political obsessions. The real issue is of far greater consequence for the country at large. Is Gore's constitutional faux pas a sign that he does not fully grasp what it means to be President of the United States? Does he understand what is required of him if he takes that constitutional oath next January? We should all pause and take a long, hard look at a man who seems to have lost all sense of history, American history.

Related links:

For the Constitution of the United States of America.
Don't miss two key clauses that hold the United States together, and are taking a beating in the Elian craze: Article III, section 2 and Article VI, section 2.

Sites for candidate Al Gore, and Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas.

To contact the scofflaws directly, perhaps with a copy of the Supreme Law of the land, Al Gore, Mayor Alex Penelas

For the short, but pithy the Presidential Oath of Office.

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