AFFLICTING THE COMFORTABLE: JOURNALISM AND POLITICS IN WEST VIRGINIA

29. Once Too Often

Chapter 29 ONCE Too OFTEN ALGERNON SIDNEY, in his 1698 Discourses on Government, noted, "Liars have good memories." Moore had long been known for his own remarkable memory, but at the age of sixty-six, it apparently failed him. Moore had a reputation for turning fact into fiction throughout his public career. As a congressman running for governor, he was quoted as saying, under oath, that his law practice had decreased to "zero." At the time that he made the statement, however, he was listed in a national lawyers directory as Moundsville-area counsel for seven major corporations. Underwood recalled his experience in running against Moore for governor in the 1968 primary. "He saw things from his perspective almost exclusively ," Underwood said. "What he thought happened, happened ... In television debates he would make statements that were not true, and I had to use my time to correct them." And the Gazette's John Morgan, who covered the governor's office during the Smith administration and Moore's first two terms, summed up Moore's propensity for mendacity in his usual understated manner. "There sometimes existed an over-statement and credibility gap between the governor and the press," Morgan said in his book, West Virginia Governors. Signs of trouble had begun appearing during Moore's first year as governor in 1969. In a conversation with one of the best holdovers from the Smith administration, Natural Resources Commissioner Pete Samsell, I learned that conditions were not as they seemed on the surface. "How are things going?" I asked Samsell one day. "Not very well," he answered. "I'm required to clear everything- down to the purchase of a box of pencils- with Moore's office." ONCE TOO OFTEN Translation from Statehouse language: I was being given the distinct impression that the same sort of fix was on that had existed during the Barron and Smith years. In a conversation with Hoffmann several weeks later, I told him about Samsell's complaint. Hoffmann, a knowledgeable critic of Moore, said, "Arch makes Wally Barron look like an altar boy." When confronted by federal investigators on April 12, 1990, and presented with documented proof of his misdeeds, Moore broke down and agreed to plead gUilty to indictments charging him with various corrupt practices. The indictments covered the period from 1984- when Moore's campaign manager, Huntington attorney Thomas L. Craig, was secretly handed a ski cap by the governor containing a hundred thousand dollars to be used in getting Moore reelected to 1990, when Moore lied under oath to federal officials. Among other wrongdoings allegedly committed by Moore was the 1985 extortion of $573,000 from coal operator H. Paul Kizer, of Beckley, in exchange for the governor's influence in obtaining a $2 million refund for Kizer 's company from the state's black-lung fund. Moore was also charged with tax evasion in the receipt of fifty thousand dollars from Island Creek Coal Company, ten thousand dollars from D'Annunzio, and $2,500 from Robert Gilliam, a former Logan County school board member. Rounding out the indictment was Moore's attempt to obstruct justice by lying under oath and trying to persuade his 1988 campaign manager , John Leaberry, to lie for him. According to the indictment, Leaberry, a former top official in the Moore administration, wore a listening device while meeting with Moore in a Parkersburg parking lot to discuss what Leaberry would say to the grand jury. The deal with Kizer was apparently struck in much the same way. Kizer told federal investigators that he and Moore made their arrangements at night behind the Charleston municipal incinerator. At a press conference, called after Moore admitted to these charges in a signed plea agreement, John Campbell, a U.S. Justice Department public integrity prosecutor, commented, "It is extraordinary that a former governor of a state be indicted for offenses of this magnitude and unprecedented that he plead guilty." 312 CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE The plea agreement was out of character for Moore, a complete reversal of his standard method of dealing with crises, and it baffled both his political friends and foes. Moore was famous for his coolness under fire, his ability to brazen it out and bounce back from adversity. The public had expected him to fight the government's accusations, as he had twice in the past when faced with charges of income tax evasion and later with a charge...