Brendan Calling

NYT Goes for the Gutter

For Mr. Gore, who calls himself a “recovering politician,” returning to Capitol Hill is akin to a recovering alcoholic returning to a neighborhood bar.

He will, in all likelihood, deliver his favorite refrain about how “political will is a renewable resource” and how combating global warming is the “greatest challenge in the history of mankind.” He will confront one of his fervent detractors, Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, who derides Mr. Gore as an alarmist.

He will also embrace old friends, pose (or not) for cellphone photos and greet the legion of climate change disciples who swear by the “Goracle” as a contemporary sage.

I like Al Gore fine, as much as it’s possible to like ANY polititician. As someone opined at Drinking Liberally this summer, opined,”these people are NOT your friends”. Or as the bumper sticker says “Politicians are like diapers: they frequently need to be changed, and for the same reasons.” But I like Al Gore just fine for the most part: he has his political skeletons like the rest, but compared to the corrupt bag of shit stinking up the Oval Office today, Gore’s as innocent as a newborn baby.

That’s why this article, like so many articles about Al Gore, pisses me off. From almost the very beginning, it’s a litany of character assassination and recycled tropes so old, they make black and white TV’s look like a fresh invention. “Recovering alcoholic”? Jeez guys, don’t be so subtle: you forgot to mention Gore has the gait of a pedophile, hunches his shoulders like a madman swinging a blood-soaked hatchet, and that he eats Christian babies for breakfast.

One of the many individual obscenities I remember from the substantively bankrupt 2000 election was the way the press jumped on Gore about every single fucking thing, from his choice of clothing to whether he was an “alpha dog” to his kids. The whole thing was deliberate as many reporters later admitted. And gee, let’s add “recovering alcoholic” to the pile, right next to “earth tone suit”.

Not that that will stop anyone from speculating, or hoping. “I don’t think he’s shut the door on it either,” said Laurie David, the producer of “An Inconvenient Truth,” the Oscar-winning documentary on global warming starring Mr. Gore, “although that might just be wishful thinking on my part.”

The prospect of another Gore campaign provides grist for critics to impugn his motives.

Mark Leibovich and Patrick Healy open their article by calling Gore a “recovering alcoholic” and then hilariously speculate upon his reasons for not running for public office again: am I the only one who sees a problem with this thought process? I don’t think I’ve seen a more clearer warning shot to Mr. Gore that his decision to stay out of politics is absolutely spot-on: if they’ll call you a drunk for testifying to Congress, you know what to expect if you enter the fray again.

Pat Healy, by the way, has a history of biased writing when it comes to Democrats, while Mark Leibovich?

Well, not to speculate, but I know an awful lot of heroin addicts who have the exact same kind of hair loss. Which is about as substantive as his own characterization of Mr. Gore.

One Response to “NYT Goes for the Gutter”

1. Tim Says:
   March 21st, 2007 at 11:09 am

   See An Inconvenient Truth. Just do it. If Gore ever got back into the fray the sound of The Right shitting their pants would be a deafening splatter. Actually, they already seem to be doing that, don’t they?

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