Rev. Al and Furious George

There are a couple of items in the news today regarding the current state of the Dem party. First we have Al Gore coming out of seclusion for another hit on America:

"I genuinely believe that American democracy faces a time of trial and challenge right now more serious than any that we have ever faced," Gore told about 400 supporters gathered at the Kravis Center for a fund raiser to boost state Democrats in the November election.

Gore cited a litany of issues, including the Bush administration's assertions of executive power, its fumbled response to Hurricane Katrina and its backing of a secret, domestic surveillance program, warrantless searches and interrogation methods used in Iraq and the war on terror.

"In every war there have been excesses ... that have come out of the extremes of combat and war," Gore said. "But never previously has it been official U.S. policy to depart from that respect that we should not torture."

Looks like he hit all the talking points.

And from Hollywood, the Dems favorite lefty movie star, Furious George, has some choice words for Dems who voted for the war in Iraq:

George Clooney has a message for Democratic office-holders who voted for the war in Iraq, only to claim later that they'd been misled by President Bush:
"F— you!"

The movie star's argument — directed at the likes of presidential wannabes Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, John Kerry and John Edwards — is actually more nuanced than that.

But not by much.

"The fear of being criticized can be paralyzing," Clooney writes today on Huffingtonpost.com — pumping up the volume after banging the drum of Hollywood liberalism in his Oscar acceptance speech.

"Just look at the way so many Democrats caved in the runup to the war. In 2003, a lot of us were saying, where is the link between Saddam and Bin Laden? What does Iraq have to do with 9/11? We knew it was bulls—.

"Which is why it drives me crazy to hear all these Democrats saying, 'We were misled.' It makes me want to shout, 'F— you, you weren't misled. You were afraid of being called unpatriotic.'"

Nice guy. And don't forget yesterday's piece on the plan by Russ Feingold to try and get the Senate to censure the President. The crack-up continues.

UPDATE: John Kerry and Max Cleland faced some hostile fire at Harvard today:

Anti-war protesters amassed at the Kennedy School of Government on Friday, when 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass) spoke with former Senator Max Cleland and a group of veterans to a packed John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum.

While Kerry came to Harvard for the premiere of “Hidden Wounds,” a documentary on veterans of the war in Iraq suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the event took a political turn as several dozen protesters gathered together at 79 JFK Street.

“Bush Lied. Kerry Complied. Bring the troops home now,” they chanted outside the Kennedy School.

The protest was sponsored by the organizations Not One More (NOM) and Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) as part of their continued effort to provoke a withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

One man, who was sitting inside the forum, called out to Kerry after the documentary.

“Stop this war, John, grow some balls” the man said. “You can do something, John.”

Apparently that guy was unaware that Kerry served in Vietnam.