WASHINGTON – They call themselves the “Men of Zeal” – even though two of the seven are women – and they all work 100 hours a week to zap the enemy.
Their first target was Bill Bradley; now it’s George W. Bush.
They’re Vice President Al Gore’s opposition research team. All day long, they pore over records, newspapers, anything they can find on Bush, hunting for ammunition to hurt him. They’re young, mostly 21 to 25.
“They work 24-7-365 – nonstop. It’s a young people’s game,” says Gore press secretary Chris Lehane.
They take any Bush plan and scour it for holes. Sometimes, their rebuttal gets e-mailed to reporters before Bush speaks. It could be source material for TV attack ads.
“The question is, can they turn this stuff around in time to have an impact?” says Lehane. “In some respects, it’s where the rubber hits the road.”
It’s grunge work that brings the giddy joy of being at the center of the action to operatives like David Ginsburg, who’s just 25 but heads the Men of Zeal. He made his name in 1998 by digging dirt to upset a Republican and elect Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.).
“I call it the brains of the campaign,” says Gore campaign manager Donna Brazile. “David is there all the time. There is never a time when I’ve come in, no matter what time of day, that he’s not there.”
Ginsburg’s Men of Zeal struck in January, when Bradley tried to attack Gore for flip-flopping on tobacco. Pow! They sent reporters every remark Bradley had ever made vowing he wouldn’t go negative against Gore.
The Gore and Bradley camps agree that’s why a lot of news reports that day focused on Bradley breaking his pledge instead of Gore’s embarrassing tobacco ties.
Now, the Men of Zeal are aiming at Bush.
“By now, they should have collected every single public document about George W. Bush, everything he’s said, everything he owns, everything he’s ever done, and it should all be categorized and computerized so it’s easily retrievable, ready and waiting,” says a Democratic operative.
The Men of Zeal aren’t Gore’s only oppo resource. The Democratic National Committee has a second, bigger team of at least a few dozen (the DNC won’t say how many). Many cut their teeth digging dirt on Whitewater-Sexgate prober Ken Starr.
But it’s too early to waste good attacks on Bush, so the Gore team is saving its best stuff. With apologies to Franklin D. Roosevelt, they say their stash is called “The Arsenal of Democracy.”