This, from Kurtz? To drop this stink bomb the day after the Oscars made it look like a hatchet job.

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Goring the Former Veep
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Sunday night was a great night for Al Gore, and he seemed to be enjoying every minute....But some folks aren't waiting for Gore to return to the political arena to start sniping at him. By a remarkable coincidence, a home-state group chose that moment to attack Gore as a hypocrite. Here's an account by a local ABC station out of Houston, KTRK:

"Armed with Gore's utility bills for the last two years, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research charged Monday that the gas and electric bills for the former vice president's 20-room home and pool house devoured nearly 221,000 kilowatt-hours in 2006, more than 20 times the national average of 10,656 kilowatt-hours....

***

Now: Is it fair for Gore's detractors to focus on his personal energy consumption? Maybe. But to drop this stink bomb the day after the Oscars makes it look like a hatchet job--one that succeeded in drawing plenty of media attention.

Which is the argument made by two Daily Kos diarists, DaveJ and JamesB:

"Did you honestly think that the Right Wing $mear machine was going to let Al Gore stand up with the terrific team who created and direct the movie and receive an Oscar for 'An Inconvenient Truth?'

"Did you really believe they would stand by and watch a Democratic leader validated for his life's work?...Who are these people? Well , a quick check of Alexa reveals their web site gets no traffic. Are they legitimate? Well, again, they claim to be non-partisan but only link to far-right and conservative groups so regardless of what their status is with the IRS, this is a conservative, strongly-leaning Republican organization.

"Gore's family has taken numerous steps to reduce the carbon footprint of their private residence, including signing up for 100 percent green power through Green Power Switch, installing solar panels, and using compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy saving technology." (Note: And paying for GreenPower through Nashville's electric company to offset their power usage.)

Ah, but that kind of ruins the story line, doesn't it?...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100587.html

[MADem]

1. It's a bit surprising, isn't it? No piling on directed by corporate masters...

Exposure of the dirty tricks sausage machine instead.

Fascinating.

[SharonAnn]

7. It's "swift-boating"

[MADem]

8. What's surprising, though, is that Kurtz is EXPOSING it.

He's sometimes too eager to hide in the back room making sausage with the rest of them. Or at least he has been in the past.

This hollering of "Unfair---bullshit!!!" from him isn't standard issue.

[station agent]

2. These smears are beyond lame

Gore paid extra for green energy sources.

http://icestationtango.blogspot.com/2007/02/swiftboating-al-gores-electric-bill.html#links

[Double T]

3. Be certain this is a vast RW conspiracy hatchet job.............

and is foreshadowing for what 'lies' ahead.

[BenDavid]

4. oh yeah, get all your

info from Daily Kos...uh huh...You wanna know what bs that site throws out, then all you have to do is take a look at their "honest" polls and you will see that HRC needs to just close up shop and go back being Senator...What a ton of manure....oh yeah there's your proof - you saw it on Kos and he's "a primary netroots player," so the facts cannot be disputed. We know we're getting it straight over at Kos. :puke:
Oh yeah we better dump Hillary this 4% loser and Let's make Kos proud.

:puffpiece:

[RandomKoolzip]

5. What does this have to do with Gore?

:shrug:

[tularetom]

6. Nothin - he's parroting Bartcop

[MADem]

9. Olbermann did a piece on it as well.

Who cares where he gets it, so long as he hoists the bullshit flag.