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Tipper Gore stops at clinic in east Tampa
By DAVID KARP © St. Petersburg Times, published August 30, 2000 TAMPA -- Tipper Gore knelt beside 77-year-old Venillia Randolph, squeezed her hand and asked her the secret to raising six children. "Love them and spoil them," Randolph said. Then Gore went around the room at an east Tampa clinic Tuesday to show the excited parents how she cared for children. One by one, she rubbed mothers' arms and let toddlers play with her hair. It was part of a campaign stop touting husband Al Gore's plan to provide health insurance to children, expand coverage for mental illnesses and pass a "Patient's Bill of Rights" to protect patients from HMOs that deny them care. "The decision should be in the hands of the patients and you," Tipper Gore told a table of doctors, nurses and health care administrators. "It's vital." She listened as doctors told her about having to get permission from HMOs to prescribe medicines. "That's an outrage," she said. "That's terrible. You all have to be so frustrated. . . . You all have run up against an industrial Big Brother." Gore's Tampa visit started at the downtown Hyatt Regency, where she addressed about 100 Democratic Party supporters in the morning. "She was very gracious," said Peggy Land, the wife of a retired real estate developer who attended the Hyatt meeting, which was closed to the news media. "I would like to have her as a daughter-in-law." Next, Mrs. Gore went to Tampa General's clinic at HealthPark. Inside, patients waited in the halls for nearly an hour to get a glimpse of the wife of Vice President Al Gore, Democratic presidential candidate. Around noon, the pediatric waiting room grew silent as Tipper Gore and her entourage turned the corner. She quietly began playing with babies and talking to parents as cameras clicked away. Later, she told reporters that her husband's proposed health care plan could be paid for with federal budget surpluses. "It can be done," she said. "We can afford it." Then it was on to the West Tampa Sandwich Shop, a traditional stop for Democratic politicians. The crowd erupted as Gore entered the tiny store, and one man waved a sign that said, "Tipper Rocks and Rolls for the People." She drank cafe con leche, nibbled a $2.35 Cuban sandwich and tasted some flan. The West Tampa Mens Club, which meets at the restaurant, broke its rules and made Gore an honorary member. - Times Staff Writer David Karp can be reached at (813) 226-3376 or karp@sptimes.com
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