From 2000: Al Gore's Uncle a 'Phony WWI Soldier'?

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And yet another flashback of a phony Democrat soldier. Here is World Net Daily's exploration of the lie Al Gore told about his "gassed Uncle in WWI" during his doomed run for president in 2000... turns out Gore didn't HAVE any family that served in WWI.

Oct. 6, 2000: When Vice President Al Gore claimed, during the first presidential debate of the 2000 campaign, his uncle had been gassed in World War I while serving in Bosnia, skeptical fact checkers went to work – and they, like the campaign itself, came up empty. "And when the conflict came up in Bosnia," said Gore, "I saw a genocide in the heart of Europe, with the most violent war on the continent of Europe since World War II. Look, that's where World War I started, in the Balkans. My uncle was a victim of poison gas there. Millions of Americans saw the results of that conflict." World War I started in the Balkans, true. Millions of Americans saw the results of that conflict, true. But if anyone was gassed in the Balkans, it wasn't any of our American troops, who served in Western Europe, and it certainly wasn't Al Gore's uncle. An exhaustive records search raised doubts he even served in the military during the "Great War." The National Archives had no record of Gore's uncle in the service and the best the campaign could do was provide a 1959 newspaper obituary saying he had been gassed as a soldier in France, information most likely provided by the family. Mr. Gore, it's Mr. Limbaugh on line 1 ...

Here is a longer treatment of the Gore lie by Charles C. Thompson and Tony Hays from Oct. 6th, 2000. Here's the key graph:

According to an Associated Press report, the uncle Gore referred to in the debate was his late uncle, Reginald. After the debate, the Gore campaign contacted the National Archives seeking any World War I records to support Gore's assertion. Apparently it came up empty-handed in the quest for confirmation from official sources, since, as the Associated Press story reports, the campaign fell back on the uncle's 1959 newspaper obituary. It said he had been treated for illness caused by being gassed as a soldier in France (not in the Balkans). Newspaper obituaries are typically based on information provided by the family, with no effort made by the newspaper to verify its accuracy.

Yeah, tis a veritable cornucopia of phony soldiers on the Democrat side of the aisle. I wonder if these stories will be reiterated by the MSM during this current flap? (Hat tip Newsbuster Linda)