Monday, February 9, 2004
Because of stuff like this:
CNN.com - Gore: America 'betrayed' by President
"He took America on an ill-conceived foreign adventure, dangerous to our troops, that was preordained and planned before 9-11," Gore told Tennessee Democrats at a party event Sunday...
Well Al Gore would know, wouldn't he, since he's likely one of the people who helped plan it. Everything I've read about Gore's role during the Clinton Administration has said that Al Gore was one of the hawks on Iraq, urging Clinton to take more action against that regime.
He put partisanship aside for exactly as long as he had to until he figured he could get away with it again.
But now here he is, running for nothing, not in office anymore, no responsibility but as a political gun for hire, coming out and damning the man with the weight of responsibility on his shoulders and using terminology like 'betrayed." It's just infuriating. And yes, for the record, I voted for the guy! I used to think some of the over-the-top Republican attacks against Clinton were too much, and I feel no different now seeing it done by people I used to support against the people I support now.
Why? Maybe because I don't have a job waiting for me if the parties switch power positions. I just care about some of the actual issues at stake. I actually care if some of the President's policies succeed, and for those I don't agree with, I'd like to, for once, see them defeated on substance, so when the other party gets in, we can have the same process.
Of course it's naive to wish for such a thing - demagoguing issues to death is nothing new. You can read history and find the venom going back to the Founders, but the the difference in impression one gets is that the venom was over sincere differences over genuine and important issues of Government. It strikes me that Al Gore would ditch a closely held principle (if he even has any) in favor of issues of Party in the wink of a politican's eye.
Not only do I disagree with Gore on this issue, but I detect a heaping-helping of hypocrisy to boot. And that's why I don't mind projecting a bit of disgust his way over this latest little bit of political debasement.
Update: Charles is taking Gore to task for his appearance at the Zayed Centre.
