Nasty Little Man

You can call me Al. And you can call me pissed.

The Al Gore that was on display at Constitution Hall, across the street from the White House, is an Al Gore that I would have voted for in 2000, rather than going idealistic and voting Nader. Apparently, it took a Bush presidency and five years out of the political arena for Gore to speak truth instead of what he was fed by consultants.

This isn't the wild-eyed, screaming "He lied!" Gore of 2004. Listening to that speech, one gets visions of Al's hair pinging off his head and his arms flailing wildly.

No, today's Gore was like a precise surgeon, taking apart the Bush administration piece-by-piece with sharp, exact cuts.

we have joined together today with thousands of our fellow citizens-Democrats and Republicans alike-to express our shared concern that America's Constitution is in grave danger.

In spite of our differences over ideology and politics, we are in strong agreement that the American values we hold most dear have been placed at serious risk by the unprecedented claims of the Administration to a truly breathtaking expansion of executive power.

Gore harkened back to the nation's founding and reminded the audience of the values the Framers held dear.

A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government. Our Founding Fathers were adamant that they had established a government of laws and not men. Indeed, they recognized that the structure of government they had enshrined in our Constitution - our system of checks and balances - was designed with a central purpose of ensuring that it would govern through the rule of law. As John Adams said: "The executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them, to the end that it may be a government of laws and not of men."

An executive who arrogates to himself the power to ignore the legitimate legislative directives of the Congress or to act free of the check of the judiciary becomes the central threat that the Founders sought to nullify in the Constitution - an all-powerful executive too reminiscent of the King from whom they had broken free.

There's a lot of great stuff in Gore's speech, and it's hard to pick out just a few highlights. Here's my favorite section, which came near the end.

The founders of our country faced dire threats. If they failed in their endeavors, they would have been hung as traitors. The very existence of our country was at risk.

Yet, in the teeth of those dangers, they insisted on establishing the Bill of Rights.

Is our Congress today in more danger than were their predecessors when the British army was marching on the Capitol? Is the world more dangerous than when we faced an ideological enemy with tens of thousands of missiles poised to be launched against us and annihilate our country at a moment's notice? Is America in more danger now than when we faced worldwide fascism on the march - when our fathers fought and won two World Wars simultaneously?

It is simply an insult to those who came before us and sacrificed so much on our behalf to imply that we have more to be fearful of than they. Yet they faithfully protected our freedoms and now it is up to us to do the same.

Transcript of the speech
Video of the speech (You'll need Real Player 10, to which C-Span.org provides a link.)

If this Al Gore runs in 2008, it will be difficult to choose between him and Russ Feingold. (Not that it matters in PA since our primary doesn't happen until the race is long over.)

posted by Kinder Gentler Little Man @ 9:23 PM