Tuesday, June 19, 2001  
California Stiffs Gore's Hatchet Men  
California's state controller, Democrat Kathleen Connell,  says she won't sign any checks for those $30,000-a-month Gore hatchet men hired  by bumbling Gov. Gray Davis to try to blame others for the state's energy  fiasco.  
"I would like assurance that their work is directly related to solving  California's energy crisis and not the political strategy that [Mark] Fabiani  and [Chris] Lehane have built a reputation for through their work at the White  House," Connell said, Fox News reported today.  
Connell says she supports a lawsuit filed Monday in Sacramento by Lewis  Uhler, president of National Tax Limitation Committee, to block "consultant"  fees to the two former advisers to failed presidential candidate Al Gore.  
"They have a conflict of interest that may be terminal to their employment,"  Uhler said. "These are clearly not electricity experts. Their background  suggests they have been hired to be damage control folks for a beleaguered  governor."