There he goes again: Al Gore serves up a steaming dollop of leftist tropes on how people were misled about the Iraq-Al Qaeda connection, based on the usual Gore assumption that the American people are too stupid to understand what the Administration actually says. Then, he rails against the Bush Administration getting support from a "network of 'rapid response' digital Brown Shirts who work to pressure reporters and their editors for 'undermining support for our troops.'"

I guess he means us warbloggers, eh?

Powerline, as usual, has, well, a rapid response and an appropriate one, including some amusing Gore quotes from 12 years ago, back when he was still a responsible adult.

More ugliness:

*The Democrats embrace Michael Moore's latest crockumentary (more on that here), which in a sane world they would live to regret.

*But fraud's not enough! There's also convicted felons! Break out the Extra Big Deniability!

*I have to agree with Instapundit that the 2002 elections were a real watershed in the level of bitterness emanating from the left side of the blogosphere, especially Kevin Drum and Josh Marshall. Today, I can't help the feeling that the two sides are looking in different directions: Democrats, at least the ones I keep seeing online, come across as fearing that a Bush victory will leave the Democrats in the wilderness for years to come; Republicans fear that a Kerry victory will lead to the loss of our momentum in the war on terror and a heightened risk of terrorist attacks. Two very different sets of fears, at least the way they come through on the page.

*What a hack: I saw this title and subtitle for a Salon article:

The hunt is on: By Joe Conason
The anti-Clinton slime machine is back -- and this time its mud pies are aimed at John Kerry.

Knowing a few things about Conason, I could see this one coming a mile away:

The first attempt to slather such sexual innuendo onto Kerry fell flat earlier this year, although hardly for want of effort. Allegations of an illicit affair between the Massachusetts senator and a young woman named Alexandra Polier turned out to be nothing more than an embarrassment for those who trumpeted the story. As the Polier episode proved, the politics of personal destruction could and would instantly erupt again with the White House at stake. While the media mantra tells us "everything has changed" since 9/11, some things haven't changed at all.

I just knew that Conason would (1) refer to the Kerry-intern story and (2) omit all references to the extensive involvement of the Wesley Clark campaign in spreading the story. Other than the fact that Matt Drudge was the vehicle for taking the story public, there remains zero reason to believe that an "anti-Clinton slime machine" was behind this story, and every reason to believe that it emanated with staffers for Clark, a close confidant of the Clinton camp. But that would get in the way of Conason's preferred storyline.