For Al Gore, Offense Is the Best Form of Defense

Perhaps he's picking up on the distant strains of a Buddhist chant — or maybe he's just feeling feisty. Whatever the reason, Vice President Al Gore has decided that offense is the best tactic when it comes to campaign finance reform, putting forward a new system in which a $1.7 billion public-private endowment would provide every candidate with his or her total campaign funding. The plan, which was met with lukewarm support from the patron saint of campaign finance, John McCain, would get rid of the direct ties between private contributors, federal officeholders and the two political parties. "The views of the donor will have absolutely no influence on the views of the recipient," said Gore Monday of the proposal, which would combine the less-than-$1,000 from private citizens and the big, "soft money" donations of corporations, political action committees and unions into a central slush fund called the Democracy Endowment. The plan, which the vice president also hopes will free candidates from the time-consuming task of fund-raising, is reportedly giving special interest groups and lobbyists — faced with the possibility of losing their influence in Washington — a serious case of the willies.

Gore might have expected that sort of opposition, but he may well find he's pushing a bill of goods that's universally unsalable. First, there is the question of what incentive there would be to contribute to a central campaign coffer, because of both bipartisanship — "I don't want my hard-earned greenbacks going to those darned Democrats/rotten Republicans" — and the perception that access to candidates would be diminished. In addition, it's doubtful that he can even count on support from fellow Democrats. "There's general agreement that the only reason Democrats vote for these campaign finance overhaul packages is because they know they're virtually guaranteed to fail," says TIME Washington correspondent Karen Tumulty. That way, they can say they did "the right thing" without having to deal with the ramifications. After all, Dems need cash just as much as their Republican rivals; in addition, the fund would also end the advantage that incumbent members of Congress have in fund-raising (and thus in electability).

But even though the response in Washington has been lukewarm, Gore's proposal could serve him well on one front. He's managed to paint his opponent, George W. Bush, into something of a corner. After all, at this point, Bush's options are limited: He can scoff at Gore's proposal and risk looking like he's addicted to soft money, or he can try to capitalize on popular antipathy toward unregulated fund-raising and look like he's just following Gore's lead.