Be careful what you wish for

Ben Johnson has written a lengthy article detailing Al Gore's inanities, including his latest, last night, when he demanded that Bush appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the NSA matter. Johnson's article describes a man who speaks only in heated, angry exclamation points:

He asserted President Bush attempted to undermine the authority of federal courts…by appointing Supreme Court justices! “Judge Alito is a longtime supporter of a powerful executive…Chief Justice Roberts has made plain his deference to the expansion of executive power through his support of judicial deference to executive agency rulemaking.” Alito famously told his inquisitors during his confirmation hearings, “No person is above the law, and that means the president.” Heaven knows what Gore is talking about in the Roberts case. (Besides, don’t leftists love “executive agency rulemaking,” especially by the EPA and OSHA?) Gore raged on. “Members of the minority party are now routinely excluded from conference committees [in Congress], and amendments are routinely not allowed during floor consideration of legislation.” OK…. The favorite candidate of Buddhist temples everywhere deemed the Abramoff scandal “the tip of a giant iceberg that threatens the integrity of the entire legislative branch of government.” He also moaned about the Medicare prescription drug benefit and large corporations’ domination of the internet, all of which is somehow Bush’s fault, because his presidency “seems to be based on an instinct to intimidate and control.”

What's tremendously amusing is that, during his entire tenure as a legitimate candidate (between 1992 and 2000), Gore was castigated for being wooden and robotic. All of us Demos repeatedly asked ourselves how this charming, erudite man could make such horrible, emotionless public presentations? In hindsight, maybe Gore was on to something when he hid his true self before the cameras.... Talking to Technorati: Al Gore