Dupe please delete

[Lou_C]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x605850

Report: Gore Calls Penelas 'treacherous and Dishonest'
The Associated Press
Published: Jun 6, 2004

MIAMI (AP) - Former Vice President Al Gore unleashed a thinly veiled attack against U.S. Senate candidate Alex Penelas, saying Miami-Dade County's mayor was "the single most treacherous and dishonest person I dealt with" during the 2000 presidential campaign, a newspaper reported Sunday.
In a statement from an unidentified Gore spokesman, the former Democratic presidential nominee responded to questions from The Miami Herald about Penelas' role in the disputed 2000 election and the Senate race Penelas is in.

After praising one of Penelas' rivals, U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch, Gore's statement said: "One of the other candidates in this race became in 2000 the single most treacherous and dishonest person I dealt with during the campaign anywhere in America," the newspaper reported.

Penelas is not mentioned by name, but a Gore aide confirmed Sunday that he was not referring to Betty Castor, the other candidate competing for the Democratic nomination.
Some Democrats have accused Penelas of failing to properly support Gore during the 2000 election against George W. Bush. Bush won the White House after taking Florida by a razor-thin margin that was challenged in a prolonged recount in many Florida counties, including Miami-Dade.

Penelas has long maintained that he supported Gore's campaign, but Gore's statement said "not all who claim to have been supportive and loyal truly were."
Penelas again denied the accusations on Sunday. "I've been a faithful and loyal Democrat for many years. ... I was proud to support Gore," he told The Associated Press.

"We delivered Miami-Dade for Al Gore," he added, noting that if Gore had won his home state of Tennessee, he would be in the White House.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/florida/MGBRL7LG5VD.html

I hate when a republican says that if Gore would have won his State he would be in the White House. When are they going to come out and say it that Jeb Bush stole the Florida votes for his pea brained brother.

[AlGore-08.com]

1. Backstory on what Penelas did to stab Gore (& us all) in the back

http://www.evote.com/features/insider/insider02062001.asp

Is That a Knife in My Back, or Are You Just Sorry to See Me?
february 6, 2001

(snip)

If you recall, after Election Day 2000, Miami-Dade County was one of the three key battleground counties in which Al Gore hoped to pick up enough votes in a recount to swing the election to the Democrats.

So, on the day after the Election, when it looked like there was a good shot at pulling out a victory, Gore made calls to various party people in Florida, and most especially, called Alex Penelas in Miami. Gore's key request was to make sure that the Miami Dade County election workers would have the full support of the city government -- especially in terms of getting enough workers to do the recounts, and in getting whatever else was needed to make the recount go forward.

Penelas assured Gore that he would do everything possible to help him, and Gore reported to his close advisers that whatever else happened, they could count on the City of Miami and Alex Penelas.

And then, Alex got on a plane and went to Barcelona, Spain for a two-week vacation. Miraculously, overnight, all of the support for Gore in Miami vanished, and the Miami-Dade County Election Board found itself with no extra budget money, no volunteers from the city government, and in fact, were so short-handed that they couldn't even call county employees over the weekend to come and help them with the count because they were denied access to the home telephone numbers and call lists that the city of Miami kept in readiness for emergencies.