Given his position, they allege, the call itself is a form of shakedown. It's not as if they have much choice. And then there's the concern about what Gore might be able to do if a donor refused. Now most people in Washington know that a Vice President can't do very much in the way of revenge. But the guy on the other end of the line doesn't know that.
Inflation is low.
Crime is down. But the bulk of the press conference was a painful litany of legalisms and evasions and long pauses while his moral hard drive rebooted. I think the entire episode constitutes further reasons why there should be campaign-finance reform. Just not in his lifetime. Ever since the revelations of Indonesian influence peddling and itinerant Chinese businessmen began dominating headlines last fall, Clinton and Gore have made a great show of support for the McCain-Feingold reform bill, which would ban soft money altogether.