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Reinventing the Gore
By Bill Schneider (CNN)
(CNN) -- Democrats in Congress seemed reluctant to confront President Bush over Iraq. It seemed too risky. Maybe it was better to support a war resolution, get the issue off the agenda and shift the focus to domestic issues. Then something happened that caused Democrats to stand up to the president. What was it? It's the political Play of the Week. On Monday, former Vice President Al Gore issued a challenge to Democratic leaders in Congress. "The Congress should establish why the president believes that unilateral action would not severely damage the fight against terrorist networks," he said. Democratic strategists groaned, "Oh no! He's turning the Democrats back into the 'peacenik' party of the '60s! Why is he doing this to us?" Partly because Democrats have been seething for weeks -- privately -- about what they regard as the White House effort to politicize the Iraq issue, Gore brought that complaint out in the open. Gore charged, "The president is on the campaign trail two or three days a week, often publicly taunting Democrats with the political consequences of a 'no' vote." With that, Democrats got a backbone implant. South Dakota Democrat Sen. Tom Daschle claimed, "This is outrageous -- outrageous!" U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Missouri, wrote in The New York Times, "If Mr. Bush and his party continue to use the war as a political weapon, our efforts to address the threat posed by Iraq will fail." Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts offered a provocative comparison with the Cuban Missile Crisis. "The United States prevailed without war in the greatest confrontation of the Cold War. Now, on Iraq, let us build international support, try the United Nations and pursue disarmament before we turn to armed conflict." Democratic leaders are under enormous pressure not to let President Bush roll over them on Iraq. From whom? From Democratic activists, for one thing -- people like Barbra Streisand, who is headlining a big Democratic fundraiser this weekend. She wrote a letter to Gephardt. "The Democratic leadership must not continue to take this lying down," she wrote. And from rank-and-file Democrats, most of whom oppose sending U.S. ground troops to Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein from power and two-thirds of whom oppose giving Bush unlimited authority to take military action in Iraq. Gore led the way. He used to be a hawk, now he's the darling of the doves. He used to be cautious; now he's a risk-taker. Gore has reinvented himself -- again -- as the man who says what Democrats are desperate to hear. Pretty good way to set yourself up for 2004: Pretty good Play of the Week.
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