PageSix.com

IT WAS SLIME TIME FOR GORE TEAM

By RICHARD JOHNSON with PAULA FROELICH and CHRIS WILSON

A NEW book confirms what PAGE SIX reported last December: A senior Al Gore adviser was spreading the false rumor accusing Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris of having an extramarital affair with Gov. Jeb Bush.

The Gore campaign denied at the time any involvement with the smear campaign, but in a new book, "Down and Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency," Salon's Washington correspondent Jake Tapper reveals it was a lie.

Tapper identifies the disinformer who spread the rumor to him and other reporters as a top Gore official who "dealt with the vice president on a regular basis," but concluded that it was "vile and despicable stuff, completely untrue.

"This is how a senior Gore adviser is spending his time, peddling this filth," Tapper notes, giving his source the name "Strep Throat."

Tapper, who had second thoughts about even mentioning the rumor again, says he'd love to reveal the liar's identity, but explains, "The only reason I don't tell you [his] name is that I made a solemn promise I wouldn't ever do so, and I, at least, consider my credibility to be a valuable asset - unlike Mr. Throat."

Meanwhile, Tapper writes that the Gore campaign's superstar lawyer David Boies scuttled their chances of winning a recount decision before the Florida Supreme Court by blabbing to the media instead of preparing his case "while Rome burned."

The day before the case was heard, Boies was interviewed by "60 Minutes" instead of getting ready, Tapper writes. Gore legal advisers Florida lawyer Ruce Rogow and Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Tribe were both troubled by Boies' lack of focus.

When Tapper expressed his concern to Boies himself, the lawyer confidently replied that he was fully capable of answering any of the Florida court's questions. But later on at a press conference, Boies admitted, "There were questions that I wasn't prepared entirely for."

The recount effort, Tapper establishes, was quietly funded by the likes of Jane Fonda and Denise Rich. Gore fund-raiser Peter Knight raised $3.5 million, including $100,000 from Fonda, and $25,000 from Rich, who was, of course, trying to get her fugitive husband, Marc Rich, a presidential pardon.

Other donations included $200,000 from Hollywood producer Stephen Bing, $500,000 from Infoseek founder Steve Kirsch, $100,000 from SlimFast founder S. Daniel Abraham, $25,000 from New Jersey Sen. Jon Corzine, and $5,000 from Las Vegas Sun editor/president Brian Greenspun.

-- Anonymous, April 15, 2001