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Wednesday, March 21, 2001 11:17 p.m. EST

Greenspan High-Fives Gore After Slap at Bush Tax Cut

In a telling gesture that reporters weren't meant to see, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan gave former Vice President Al Gore a high five Wednesday after Gore suggested to his Columbia University journalism class that President Bush's tax cut plan is "a really bad government policy."

Greenspan was on hand to address Gore's class on the economy and the media in a session that included a question and answer period for students. (Gore barred the press from the event.)

But the former veep ran interference for the nation's chief moneyman whenever his students' questions got too close to hot-button economic topics.

"The former vice president definitely did intervene anytime anybody asked Greenspan about the interest rate cut, tax cut policy issues," Gore student Leah Yoon told Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly.

At one point Gore's intervention took the form of a slap at President Bush's tax cut plan, when one student asked Greenspan whether economies typically recovery quickly - "in what is seen as a 'V' or an 'L' on a graph."

"It comes out as a 'W' if it's a really bad government policy," Gore interjected, according to the Associated Press.

Greenspan said nothing - but gave the former Veep a high five after his Bush barb.

The wire service deleted Greenspan's implied criticism of the Bush tax cut plan from its later reports on the event.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Media Bias
Bush Administration