Gore Makes Surprise Visit To Netroots Nation
AUSTIN -- Al Gore made a surprise visit to the Netroots Nation convention this morning, delighting the crowd of 2000 bloggers and progressive activists. The event organizers had worked hard to keep Gore’s visit under wraps, and although rumors began circulating the night before, most of the audience members appeared genuinely surprised and thrilled when Gore walked onstage.
Gore made his appearance during the much anticipated “Ask The Speaker” session featuring House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. After Pelosi was asked a question about Gore’s bold proposal to shift 100% of the nation's electricity production to carbon-free sources within 10 years, she said that she had recently received an email on the subject. As Pelosi pretended to check her BlackBerry, Gore’s voice was heard intoning over the loudspeaker: “Dear Nancy, Thursday I issued a challenge to reset our energy commitment…” A grinning Gore then strode onto the stage to gasps, cheers, and thunderous applause.
Gore joked, “We oughta take that act on the road, Nancy,” to which Pelosi responded, “We are on the road!” Gore replied, “We are on the road, but I feel right at home, I’ll tell you.”
After thanking the netroots for creating “a movement to reclaim the integrity of American democracy,” Gore devoted most of his subsequent remarks to the subject of climate change. He emphasized the importance of investing in renewable energy sources and urged the audience to visit the website of the Alliance For Climate Protection’s “We Campaign.” Gore explained that the organization is “trying to mobilize ten million grassroots activists” in an effort to build “a political consensus across party lines that seeks to find a meaningful solution to the climate crisis.”
Gore delivered an abundance of red-meat lines to the progressive crowd, which clearly adored him. He portrayed GOP proposals to expand oil drilling as misguided and ineffective: “The idea that we can drill out of way out of this is just so absurd as to not warrant a reply.”
Gore received thunderous applause when he compared the GOP’s drilling proposals to the U.S. invasion of Iraq: “Am I the only one that finds it strange that our country is so often fooled into picking a remedy for a problem that has absolutely nothing to do with the problem that’s being talked about? Proposing to get a slight increase in oil drilling for fuel to be sold to China 10 to 15 years from now as a solution to our rising gasoline prices makes about as much sense as responding to an attack from Afghanistan by invading some other country.”
During the subsequent Q&A, Gore fielded questions about a variety of subjects, including mountaintop removal (which he called “an atrocity”), nuclear power (he said he was “skeptical”), and the environmental effects of meat production (“It would be healthier for us as individuals and for the planet if we consumed less meat”). When asked if he would accept a position in a hypothetical Barack Obama administration, Gore said that he was “honored by the suggestion” but that he thinks his skills would be more effectively applied to “trying to enlarge the political space within which elected officials and cabinet members address this climate crisis.”
Earlier in the morning, the conference attendees gave Pelosi a polite yet subdued welcome, especially when compared with the rapturous reception that they later gave Gore. Before the Q&A began, Pelosi thanked the netroots “for making our Democratic victory in 2006 possible” and apologized for not being able to attend last year’s conference. The first question -- which bloggers had voted #1 on AskTheSpeaker.org -- was why the Democratic Congress hadn’t used its “inherent contempt” authority to arrest current and former members of the Bush administration (such as Karl Rove) who defy Congressional subpoenas. Pelosi essentially punted the question, saying that Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers had told her to “leave it up to [him].”
The second question concerned the recent FISA bill, which has generated considerable outrage in the netroots community. Pelosi defended the House version of the bill, which did not grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that participated in the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. She said: “Was [the House bill] a bill that I would have written? Definitely not. Was it infinitely better than the Senate bill? I believe so.” It was clear that audience members did not like Pelosi's answer, but they listened to her respectfully.
After this tense start, the Q&A shifted toward less controversial topics, and the crowd applauded many of Pelosi’s answers. The netroots were particularly pleased when Pelosi voiced her support of net neutrality and her opposition to abstinence-only sex education. Environmental activists were delighted when Pelosi appeared to offer at least a qualified endorsement of Gore’s clean energy proposal. When asked whether Congress would accept Gore’s challenge to shift 100% of the nation's electricity production to carbon-free sources within 10 years, Pelosi said, “I salute him for his challenge, and it is absolutely possible to do so.”
(Hotline's IAN FAERSTEIN)
