...or "Al Gore is a pansy"
Punt!
I understand that Al Gore did the politically correct thing here. Like he said, he's trying to "expand the political space" where the debate on climate change can be conducted. Telling the American People the truth about the President Accusing the President of a crime and outing Joe Lieberman as a Republican calling for his friend to be kicked out of the Democratic caucus isn't a good way to make friends.
What really bothered me was the framing of the first question.
Rather than asking Mr. Gore "is the President guilty of a crime?", the question was "you said some nasty things about the President, and then he had you over to the White House. Why didn't you apologize?"
Something about that logic seems wrong.
If Charles Manson had you over for dinner, would it make him any less of a murderer?
I don't want to make an extreme comparison, so let's just say that if your neighbor backed into your car and shattered the windshield, but bought you a beer later, would you let him off the hook?
George Bush might be a nice guy, but he still has to pay for the windshield. Al Gore's and other politicians' hedging like this doesn't help the case.