Al Gore Lies: Gore Attacks Cheney for Speaking on Critical Issues

Al Gore, that one that invented the internet, chided Vice President Dick Cheney for speaking on "critical" matters far too soon after the end of the Bush administration. Gore said "I waited two years" to criticize the Bush administration.

Al Gore

Oops! Real Clear Politics went digging and here's what they found Gore said September 2002 (the Bush inauguration was January 20, 2001):

From the outset, the administration has operated in a manner calculated to please the portion of its base that occupies the far right," Mr. Gore said. Gore called the Bush administration's "attack on fundamental constitutional rights" beyond the "pale and un-American."

Oh my, "beyond the pale and un-American." The Weekly Standard dug some too - more quotes from Al Gore - 1+ years from President Bush's inauguration:

Boston Globe, 4/14/2002: "'They are wrong to vilify honorable men and women who oppose their right-wing domestic agenda and oppose a blatantly dishonest budget,' Gore said. 'They are wrong to imply that those who stand up to them are somehow unpatriotic.'" (Headline -- "Combative Gore Lashes Out At Administration Policies In Fla. Speech, He Hits Bush For 'Radical Agenda'") [Note: So much for his assertion today that his early criticsm of the Bush Administration focused on policy.]

USA Today, 4/15/2002: "Gore's speech was the emotional peak of the convention. With practiced skill, humor and a passion some delegates said they did not see during the campaign, Gore denounced virtually every element of Bush's domestic policy." (Headline -- "Gore's fiery speech raises questions of plans")

NY Times, 4/23/2002: "Sounding very much like the candidate he was and may become again, Al Gore said today that the environment was a moral issue and the Bush administration was giving 'policy payoffs to polluters.' 'Our environment is under siege,' Mr. Gore , the former vice president, said in an Earth Day speech here to 400 students at Vanderbilt University. 'The Bush administration has chosen to serve the special interests instead of the public interests and subsidize the obsolete failed approaches of the past instead of the exciting new solutions of the future. Instead of ensuring that our water is clean to drink, they thought that maybe there wasn't enough arsenic in the drinking water.'"

LA Times, 6/30/2002: "In a speech Saturday night to local Democrats, Gore attacked Bush's economic policies as "a total catastrophe." He also noted that in the war on terrorism, the U.S. has yet to catch Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and he denounced the White House for "trying to use the war for political purposes.'" [I guess that's just more pure criticsm of policy ... .]

The author, Adam White, notes that Gore only waited as long as he did to let 9/11 "national unity subside." One of Gore's more famous lies: Speaking to a U.S. Conference of Mayors, Gore said that 18-20 year olds could buy a handgun. Tom Brokaw immediately pointed out the mistake, saying "that's wrong." Dan Rather, however, struggled with it, couldn't admit the Vice President wrong and say "You may want to not that critics say Gore misspoke himself today." Rather's comment came after stressing how Gore cared about gun violence and young people. Another Gore lie:

On August 28, 1996, Al Gore shared with the Democratic convention and the nation the tragic story of his sister's 1984 death from smoking. He tremulously pledged: "Until I draw my last breath, I will pour my heart and soul into the cause of protecting our children from the dangers of smoking."

So what would Gore say when his campaign hired Carter Eskew, a consultant who created ads against Sen. John McCain's $1.10-a-pack cigarette tax? Ads Bill Clinton claimed could be "fatal to young children who continue to be seduced and sold illegally cigarettes that will shorten their lives"? He didn't have to say anything. It's another Gore tobacco gaffe the media have barely touched.

For more Gore gaffes, go here.

Al Gore Lies