WASHINGTON -- Capping a week that illuminated whole new dimensions to the talents and accomplishments of this city's most powerful politicians, Senator Trent Lott, the majority leader, revealed on Friday that he was the inventor of the modern paper clip.
"During my service in the United States Congress," Lott, a Mississippi Republican, said in a written statement, "I took the initiative in creating the paper clip. Paper clips bind us together as a nation."
Was he for real? Not exactly, although he was doing an awfully good imitation.
Lott's deadpan announcement, printed on his official letterhead, was the latest and cleverest effort by Republicans to rib Vice President Al Gore for a statement on Tuesday on CNN in which he said he "took the initiative in creating the Internet."
Gore was referring to a legislative career in which he promoted technological advancements, but his Republican colleagues obviously thought his precise phrasing grabbed a tad too much credit.
"If the Vice President created the Internet," Representative Dick Armey, the House majority leader, said in a statement after Gore's remarks, "then I created the Interstate highway system."
Lott's claim was a bit more ingenious, because it poked fun not only at Gore but also at himself. Lott is famous for his fastidiousness.
Today's news release said: "Lott, known for his passion for order, said that paper clips are a crucial element to a well-organized office. Lott also noted that paper clips help contribute to a growing economy."
The release quoted the Senator as saying: "Paper clips are the engine of the U.S. economy. The Dow will soon break 10,000, due in part to strong growth in the paper clip industry."
And it included six sketches chronicling the evolution of Lott's sketches for the paper clip, culminating in the creation of the current design on April 1, 1973. Note the month and day.
In a telephone interview from Miami, where the Vice President was visiting a Federal "empowerment zone," a spokesman for Gore said that Lott's claim was apt.
"It's no surprise that Senator Lott and the Republicans are taking credit for an invention that has been around for centuries," the spokesman, Christopher S. Lehane, said, at least partly in jest. "After all, their policies are intended to take us back to the Dark Ages."
But once again, the Gore camp was reaching a bit too far. The paper clip, sired by a Norwegian man named Johan Vaaler, goes back only about 100 years.
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