The April Washington Monthly features a long piece by Robert Parry, recycled from his Consortiumnews Web site, defending Vice President Gore against the charge that he's a liar. As previously noted in this space, that charge is sincerely believed by many political reporters--see, for example, this column by USA Today's Walter Shapiro (a Washington Monthly alumnus).

Parry takes the extreme, opposite position: Gore is guilty of no more than "some imprecise phrasing and the kinds of exaggerations that all candidates make on the campaign trail." But Parry's piece deals with only the three most Letterman-ready Gore controversies: the Love Canal Boast, the Love Story Boast, and the Internet Boast. He ignores all the other fibs the VP is alleged to have told that could, ominously, add up to a "pattern of deception," as we in the press like to put it.

Why not confront the whole, worst case against Gore ("play Notre Dame," in Monthly editor Charles Peters' phrase)? Parry's article was originally published on the Web way back on Feb. 1, but even then the focus of the press's anti-Gore commentary was more on his statements regarding his abortion position, not on any of the three incidents Parry dissects.

Hoping to bash Parry and the Monthly for this oversight, I foolishly set off in search of all the supposed lies that Parry didn't discuss. What I found, to a certain extent, actually bolsters Parry's case. Gore isn't as big a liar as I thought! Still, there's more there than the "imprecise phrasing" and normal puffery Parry concedes. There really is a disturbing pattern of claims that Gore's most recent biographer, Bill Turque, calls "broadly exaggerated--and grandiose." True, there's always a core of truth to the lies Gore has told, but there's also a bit of delusion, egomania, and bullying.

But you, the reader, can make up your own mind, because, as an ongoing campaign resource, kausfiles offers this handy, more-complete classification of Gore's alleged falsehoods, gathered and analyzed in the calm of a campaign lull. (It's undoubtedly not completely complete, and will be updated as new evidence is brought to my attention.)

Listed in order of increasing estimated overall mendacity:

1. The Internet Boast: Gore, as Parry notes, never said he "invented" the Internet. He said, "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." Gore was in fact a leading congressional supporter of funding for the nascent Net's computer infrastructure. Still, funding isn't "creating." Does Gore have an inflated notion of the importance of Washington policy-makers? The vice president has regretted his choice of words, which Parry argues he didn't have to do. Verdict:Minor, and excusable.

2. The Love Story Boast: In late 1997, Gore walked to the back of Air Force Two and had a long conversation with two reporters. During this talk, Gore let it drop that Erich Segal, author of the best-selling tearjerker Love Story, had once told reporters in Tennessee that Gore and his wife Tipper had served as models for the lead romantic characters in that novel. The truth: Segal says Gore was one of two models for the male lead (Oliver Barrett 4^th) but Tipper wasn't the model for the female lead (Jenny). Even when it came to Barrett, it was Gore's roommate, Tommy Lee Jones, who supplied the character's romantic, macho side; Gore contributed mainly the familial angst of being pressured to follow in his father's footsteps. The case for Gore: He was only citing a Nashville newspaper article, which apparently did say that both Gores were models (an exculpatory angle emphasized by Bob Somerby's Daily Howler Web site). The case against Gore: Citing the old article could be way to "plant" this aura-enhancing tidbit while maintaining deniability. More troubling, Segal said Gore told him he knew that Tipper wasn't the model for Jenny, and had never said that. Both reporters (Karen Tumulty of Time and Richard Berke of the New York Times) have said Gore left the impression that both he and Tipper were models for Segal's characters. Verdict:On the Al/Oliver issue, excusable. Gore probably really did think it was all about him. (It wouldn't be the last time ...) On the more difficult Tipper/Jenny issue, take your pick. Either Gore lied to Segal when he said he knew Tipper wasn't Jenny, or Segal lied to the press (doubtful), or Gore misled the reporters (or they misheard, or they're lying).

3. The Abortion Evolution: In the current campaign, Gore has said he "always, always, always" supported Roe vs. Wade, and "always supported a woman's right to choose." Why that might not be true: In 1977 Gore voted for the Hyde Amendment, which contained language saying that abortion "takes the life of an unborn child who is a living human being" and that there is no right to abortion "secured by the Constitution." In 1984 Gore voted for the Siljander Amendment, which defined "person" to include "unborn children from the moment of conception." In the early '80s he got an 84 percent rating from the National Right to Life Committee, and he once said it "is wrong to spend federal dollars for what is arguably the taking of a human life." Gore's defense: First off, "arguably" means "arguably"; it's evidence of a fudge, not a lie. (Not to mention that abortion is arguably the taking of a human life.) In general, Gore says he distinguished between protecting abortions and spending federal money to subsidize them, which is certainly a line you can draw. The Hyde Amendment denied federal funding for abortions, but left Roe's protections intact. Does it really matter if there was some ineffectual pro-life language tucked away in the preamble or elsewhere? The trouble comes with the Siljander Amendment, which as Turque notes, "was explicitly designed to deny federal funds to any institution that performed abortions at any time." In other words, the idea was to take away not just the money for abortions but all federal money, forcing hospitals and other institutions to stop performing them, thereby making access to abortion difficult even for people ready to pay with their own, non-federal dollars. This active attempt to restrict access doesn't easily sit alongside enthusiastic talk of a "woman's right to choose," though it is still not logically contradictory. It's as if Gore supported the right of free political speech but then pressured television stations not to broadcast political statements--which, come to think of it, is exactly what Gore's latest campaign-finance proposal does! Verdict:Mostly abum rap. Gore didn't lie. But why not, from the start, just say, "Sure, my position changed"?

4. The Scoop Boast: In 1987 Gore told the Des Moines Register that as an investigative reporter he had gotten "a bunch of people indicted and sent to jail." This was technically untrue: Only two city councilmen were indicted. One was acquitted (after playing the "race card"). One was given a suspended sentence, according to Turque's biography. Richard Nixon actually wrote to Gore to tell him not to be "discouraged by the flack you are getting about possibly exaggerating your achievements as an investigative reporter." After all, Nixon noted, Gore had indeed produced "results." Good point! Even the Weekly Standard concedes that this belongs in the category of "fibs ... uttered in moments of spontaneity." But again, why embellish? Verdict:Minor lie.