The thing about Richard Cohen is that even when he's right, he just can't help saying something egregiously stupid.
Today's column praises Gore as "a man who did not quit," who "accepted defeat graciously and tried to unite the nation, who returned to the consuming passion of his earlier days, the environment," and who "gives us all a lesson on how to live one's life." All fair enough, if overwritten, and it should be good to see Gore get his due from a member of the Pundit Class.
And yet...
This is the bit that made me tear my hair out:
It's a joke, isn't it? I mean, it was Gore who was universally seen as the flawed man, uncomfortable in his own skin and, therefore, in this TV age, incapable of uniting the nation. He was caricatured by some of my colleagues as a serial exaggerator, a fibber, a pretender -- the guy who invented the Internet, who was the model for the novel (and movie) "Love Story," who applied one too many coats of passion to that kiss he delivered to his wife, Tipper, at the Democratic National Convention in 2000. There were so many reasons not to vote for him -- none, in retrospect, much good.Shorter Richard Cohen: I wasn't mean to Al--it was those other kids.
This would be the Richard Cohen who, in 1998, was claiming Gore gave too little to charity; in 1999, deriding Gore for dressing more casually and hiring Naomi Wolf; in 2000, helping feed the "unlikable" narrative; and in 2004, saying Gore stabbed Lieberman in the back.
"Some of my colleagues", my ass. Cohen was part of the problem (on Gore, as on Iraq), and his refusal to acknowledge that makes him still part of the problem.
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