People Xmastime Likes

 guest post by MARLEY


I'm working my way down Xmastime's list of the people and/or websites he likes (on the right). I have my own thoughts.

Al Gore: I used to like him some. This, I thought, was a likeable remembrance:

An anecdote former Clinton counterterror czar Richard Clarke recounts in his memoir "Against All Enemies" is instructive. In 1993, White House Counsel Lloyd Cutler was horrified by Mr. Clarke's proposal for "extraordinary rendition," where our spooks turn over prisoners to foreign countries like Egypt so they can do the interrogating. While Mr. Clinton was still chewing his fingernails and seemed to side with Mr. Cutler, Al Gore arrived late to the meeting. "Clinton recapped the arguments on both sides," Mr. Clarke writes. "Gore laughed and said, 'That's a no-brainer. Of course it's a violation of international law, that's why it's a covert action. The guy is a terrorist. Go grab his ass.'"

But then Gore went kerfluey.



He gave a Reichstag Fire speech to Moveon.org, became a "conscience" and - despite some pretty funny cameos on sitcoms and SNL - has settled into the role of a condescending, "I will save the world" blowhard.

So I do not like.