Gore? I know Kerry didn't ask him. Pres. Clinton? No way. And Dean says his endorsement doomed his candidacy. -- The messenger may be the killer.

Although the message is good, the messenger may be the one doing the killing rather than vice versa.

And the timing -- terrible. We have a candidate fully capable of killing himself without unrequested assistance.

Mr. Gore, you have to know that anything you say at this time will be reported. Please, be respectful and cease and desist.

But since Mr. Gore took off a little time from working on his patent for inventing the internet to deliver a few words, here is what he said:

Al Gore on Monday accused President Bush of deceiving the public about the reasons for invading Iraq and said he is so ideologically driven that he refuses to admit -- or even learn from -- his mistakes.

"It is beyond incompetence--it is recklessness that risks the safety and security of the American people," the former vice president said in a speech at Georgetown University in Washington.

Gore . . . complained that Bush's "rigid, right-wing ideology" causes the president to ignore warnings that may conflict with his assumptions about Iraq, tax cuts and other issues."

He is arrogantly out of touch with reality," Gore said. "He refuses to ever admit mistakes. Which means that so long as he is our president, we are doomed to repeat them.

(10-19-04 Chicago Tribune; 10-19-04 Washington Post.)