Al Gore seems to have had an environmental epiphany after his terms as vice-president. That's good, because his performance at the 2000 global warming talks at The Hague was less than stellar.

As John Caruso at The Distant Ocean points out, "his [Gore's] practice of erasing the key role that he and the Clinton administration (and the Democrats generally) have played in getting us to where we are now is deeply harmful."  He notes the headlines from that conference in 2000: "U.S. Blamed for Climate Treaty Talks Deadlock," "Climate Talks Fail to Close Rift with U.S.," "U.S. Blocks Attempts to Cut Global Warming," "US Plays Dirty As Planet Chokes."

Caruso writes that there was hypocrisy from both Gore and John Kerry at the Bali conference.  John Kerry in 2004 said that the Kyoto Protocol was not the answer. Yet at Bali he disingenuously patted Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and himself on the back.

George Monbiot in the Guardian notes that, "December 11 1997. The US had just put a wrecking ball through the Kyoto protocol. George Bush was innocent; he was busy executing prisoners in Texas. Its climate negotiators were led by Albert Arnold Gore.

"The European Union had asked for greenhouse gas cuts of 15% by 2010. Gore's team drove them down to 5.2% by 2012. Then the Americans did something worse: they destroyed the whole agreement.Most of the other governments insisted that the cuts be made at home. But Gore demanded a series of loopholes big enough to drive a Hummer through. The rich nations, he said, should be allowed to buy their cuts from other countries. When he won, the protocol created an exuberant global market in fake emissions cuts....."

Progressives were disappointed by John Kerry who voted for Iraq, the Patriot Act and NAFTA and opposed Kyoto.  They should be disappointed by Al Gore for not being honest and reminding us about his and the Clinton administration's stance on global warming and climate change in 1997 and 2000.  This was an administration that tossed away any Democratic Party principles it might have had and became a Republican-like administration very quickly.  Progressives should not allow themselves to be deceived in 2008.

This is not dumping on Al Gore, but a bit of history.  It would be great if Gore had the honesty to 'fess up to his previous stance as vice president on the environment at Kyoto and The Hague.   As John Caruso says about Gore, "....put the future of the planet ahead of the short-term interests of themselves and their corporate constituency.  But that would require him to replace his vanity with the kind of humility, honesty, and genuine courage that should be the standard for anyone receiving a Nobel peace prize."