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Smoke in his eyes
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Jan. 22, 2000 | WASHINGTON -- At the last minute on Friday, Jan. 14, editors at Newsweek magazine pulled an excerpt of "Inventing Al Gore: A Biography," a book by their own reporter Bill Turque. According to a knowledgeable source, the editors were concerned that the excerpt focused too much on Gore's past drug use. The chapter in the book addresses the veracity of Gore's claim in 1987 that his past pot smoking was "rare and infrequent." That same year, as Gore was gearing up for his doomed presidential run, he said to reporters that it had been approximately 15 years since he last toked up. But Newsweek editors were worried about the credibility of one of Turque's main sources for the story disputing Gore's claim to "rare and infrequent" pot use -- former Gore pal and colleague at the Nashville Tennessean, John Warnecke, a recovering alcoholic currently in a 12-step program. Warnecke told Salon that he suffers from depression and that schizophrenia runs in his family. He says he used to regularly smoke pot with Gore, and that the vice president's marijuana use was far more extensive than Gore has indicated. Newsweek editors apparently tried to water down the language and descriptions in Turque's book, scheduled to be published in February. But since Turque and his publisher, Houghton Mifflin, own the rights to the excerpts, he had final say about what Newsweek would publish. (An excerpt about Gore's time in Vietnam, which included scenes in which a distraught Tipper sought solace with Warnecke and his wife, had already been published in December.) After all, Turque devoted three years of his life to the book, had confirmed Warnecke's allegations with other sources, and didn't want any of his research watered down. Turque, it should be noted, is no J.H. Hatfield, the since-discredited writer whose book about George W. Bush was quickly pulled from shelves last fall for containing shoddy sourcing, and after it was revealed Hatfield had served time in prison for hiring someone to murder his boss. Turque was Newsweek's White House correspondent for two years, a senior writer about national affairs for the magazine for five years and worked as a newspaper reporter for a decade before that, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1981 with a team of reporters at the Kansas City Star. After much hand-wringing and head-butting, according to the source, Turque and his editors agreed to pull the story to be reworked so that it could be given more context. In return, Turque was promised more space -- though there's no guarantee when or if the piece will run. Turque then called Warnecke to let him know about the delay. But Warnecke, now living on disability in the San Francisco area, decided to take matters into his own hands. A former member of the Tennessee chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), Warnecke alerted the Web site of the Drug Reform Coordination Network that the piece had been pulled, hoping to somehow get his story out. It worked. The group's online site, DRCNet, published an interview with Warnecke on Friday that was picked up and linked to by Mediagossip.com, a Web site popular with reporters and editors. Gore spokesman Chris Lehane says, "This is old news. [Gore] brought it up himself in 1987 and was definitive at that time that he's never used it since entering public office." Lehane continued, "He's said he used it in college, used it in Vietnam and used it in Tennessee, but definitely hasn't used it since entering public service." Warnecke, an oft-quoted source as a former Gore friend, says that he has covered up for Gore in the past, downplaying Gore's pot use to reporters. Now, he says, he wants to set the record straight.
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