Back in early November, when George W. Bush was stumbling over the names of South Asian political leaders, and the New Yorker had just published Bush's Yale grades and SAT scores, the Gore campaign enjoyed a little snicker at Bush's expense: "I guess we know that 'C' at Yale was a gentleman's 'C,'" said Gore spokesman Chris Lehane.
This ticked off John B. Thompson, a Coral Gables lawyer and, more significant, former law school classmate of Gore's. Lehane was still laughing last week, but it sounded a bit forced, maybe because he had no ready response to the following letter, a copy of which was e-mailed by Thompson to THE SCRAPBOOK and a few dozen other media types:
December 23, 1999
The Honorable Albert Arnold Gore Vice President of the United States Gore 2000 Campaign Headquarters Nashville, Tennessee
Re: Dropping Out of Vanderbilt Law School, Release of Your Transcript
Dear Mr. Vice President:
You may not remember that you and I were classmates at Vanderbilt Law School, Class of 1976. As you know, you dropped out before getting your juris doctor degree.
On November 28 of this year I wrote Vanderbilt Law School Dean Kent Syverud asking him to ask you to authorize release of your law school transcript to the public. On December 8 Dean Syverud wrote you doing precisely that. To date, you have refused.
I would not have made this request if you had not made such a big deal about Governor Bush's illegally leaked Yale transcript and the fun you made of what you called his "gentleman's C." You have foolishly made academic records a campaign issue, just as you have tried to tie some of Senator Bradley's staff to tobacco ads, while your own staffers have much closer ties to such ads.
Mr. Vice President, you and I both know what you are hiding by refusing to release your Vanderbilt Law School transcript. I would respectfully suggest that the best thing for you to do is to authorize its immediate release in order that the embarrassment which will follow will be well behind you before the crucial upcoming primaries. The longer you stonewall, the closer the ultimate release of the transcript comes to those primaries, thereby maximizing the harm to your Presidential hopes.
Mr. Vice President, you have brought this problem upon yourself by throwing stones at someone else's academic record, while your own Vanderbilt record sits there in a glass house. This speaks volumes about your character and your judgment, both of which most voters consider when choosing their President.
Truly, JBT
Copies: Iowa, New Hampshire, and national media; all GOP Presidential campaigns and Senator Bradley's campaign
Touche. Vanderbilt confirms that Thompson was in the same entering class as Gore. THE SCRAPBOOK has seen the Dec. 8 letter to the Gore campaign from Vanderbilt's Dean Syverud. No one, as yet, has seen Gore's transcript. Thompson won't say what it is he thinks the transcript will show. It's time for Gore to come clean! Meanwhile, THE SCRAPBOOK is sending propitiatory Christmas cards to all its old college classmates.