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Gifts for all occasions in the Galleria! Subscribe to the "What is the Deal?" mailing list. The "What is the Deal?" Deal-of-the-Week: Flights.Cars.Hotels.Vacations.Orbitz.com. June 27, 2004 What is the Deal with Al Gore? By Jan A. Larson Former Vice-President and Presidential candidate Al Gore, a man of many personas, has undergone several transformations since 2000 election. During the 2000 campaign, the term "plastic man" might have been the most appropriate description of Gore's public personality. After the election, he let himself go and assumed a role reminiscent of the Unabomber but without the fireworks and literature. Now Gore has emerged as an apparent attack dog for the Kerry campaign. In a speech last week at Georgetown University, Gore ripped into the President, once again accusing him of lying to the American public about links between al Qaeda and the government of Saddam Hussein. After eight years of working with Bill Clinton, I'm sure Gore knows a thing or two about lying, but I'm not sure he can tell the difference between hearing a lie and telling one. Gore maintained that the so-called "9/11" commission found "no credible evidence" of a link between the terrorist organization and Hussein's Iraq and that the administration won't acknowledge their "fabrication" due to the political consequences. I guess Gore must not have distinguished between the commission's actual conclusion about connections between al Qaeda and the Iraqi government as opposed to connections between al Qaeda and the September 11 attacks. The administration, of course, has never maintained there was a link between Saddam and September 11 although more and more information about al Qaeda - Iraq relationships are now coming to light. Ah, details, details. Never let details stand in the way of spinning a good yarn. The former Senator also claimed that the President, along with Vice-President Cheney, have engaged in a carefully crafted campaign to keep the notion of a link between al Qaeda and Saddam in the minds of voters in order to cover up the lies. It is certainly not surprising that Al Gore would cook up a conspiracy theory - conspiracy theories are not uncommon among Democrats - but considering that so many Democrats don't give the President credit for having enough brain power to get out of the rain, such a theory seems to be "off-message." Extending the conspiracy theory even further, Gore asserted that the administration has a network of rapid-response "brown shirts" (a reference to Nazi supporters in the 30's and 40's) that they use to intimidate the press from undermining support for American troops. Considering the mainstream media's coverage of the war and "support" for the President, these "brown shirts" must not be very effective. Normally lunatic rants and conspiracy theories such as those that Gore offers up from time to time would not be expected to have much effect on the election. However, given the result of the 2000 election, it is possible that the blustering of the former Vice-President will inspire some anti-war, anti-Bush, former Howard Dean supporters to come out to the polls in November. If that is the case, Gore will have served his purpose for the Kerry campaign and will be free to transform himself into something else. Personally, I thought he did a pretty good job on his Saturday Night Live appearance a couple of years ago. Maybe he has a future in comedy. If you think about it, his performances since his endorsement of Howard Dean some months ago have all been quite funny. -- Send feedback to the author. The "What is the Deal?" column will appears weekly on the Pie of Knowledge website. Guest submissions are welcome and encouraged. To submit an article to "What is the Deal?" click here. To subscribe to the "What is the Deal?" mailing list and receive early notification when a new column is available, click here. The Pie of Knowledge will never, ever divulge email addresses to any third party for any reason unless so ordered by a court of law. Contributions to the Pie of Knowledge are greatly appreciated. 
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