WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 - Speaking today at an informal gathering of legislators in the U.S. Senate cafeteria, former U.S. Vice-President and 2000 Democratic Presidential candidate Al Gore said he is "totally embarrassed" by the recent behavior of his former running mate, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), who has threatened to filibuster the popular health care reform measure currently pending in the U.S. Senate.
"Attention, everybody! I want all of you, and the American people as well, to understand that Joe Lieberman and I are emphatically no longer an item," said Gore, raising his voice for attention. "I've asked him on several occasions to remove those photo-booth pictures of us together on his Facebook page, but he has so far ignored my requests to do so."
Gore then produced a small black-and-white photo of Lieberman and himself and tore it in half while staring at the back of the Connecticut senator's head. "Maybe this will make things clearer to some people," he added.
Lieberman, far across the room, glanced momentarily at Gore, rolled his eyes, and resumed his conversation with Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Kent Conrad (D-ND), two of the upper chamber's most popular members.
Seating himself moments later, the former Tennessee senator took a closer look at the photo's remnants. "God, I can't believe I actually sat on his lap," he said, almost to himself. "When I get home, I should find the pants I was wearing that day and burn them. "
Appearing to collect himself, Gore continued, "Anyway, the truth is I never liked him. I mean, I liked him, but I didn't 'like-him' like him."
"Yuck," added Gore.
Gore's contention that he was never serious about Lieberman, however, runs counter to the recollections of many of Gore's former Senate colleagues. Former Sen. Sam Nunn (D-GA) rolls his eyes at the memory.
"Oh, please. Gore had a thing for Lieberman going back to freshman term. The day before Lieberman's re-election in '94, Gore decorated Joe's locker in the Senate cloakroom with balloons and glitter and a picture he drew of Lieberman as Droopy the Dog, dropping an anvil on [GOP candidate] Jerry Labriola's head," recalls Nunn. "When Lieberman won, Gore practically broke [senior Connecticut Senator] Chris Dodd's ribs, elbowing him out of the way to get in pictures with Joe."
Former Sen. Alan Cranston (D-CA) confirms Nunn's account. "There was a period in the spring of '92 when Gore was going over to Lieberman's house almost every night, supposedly working on the language of a sense-of-the-Senate resolution on Yugoslavia. We were all sure that something was gonna happen then," says Cranston. "But then Bill Clinton asked Gore to run with him. Clinton was really, really popular-- every Senator wanted to run with him. Gore didn't know what to do.
"The next day, during a debate on Malaysian rainforests, Gore and Lieberman went outside to talk," says Cranston. "They were gone almost an hour, and when Gore came back, his eyes were red and puffy, like he'd been crying."
A spokesman for the former Vice-President said that Gore suffers from hay fever.
While the Clinton-Gore victory in 1992 meant Gore and Lieberman saw less of each other than they had as colleagues in the Senate, those close to Gore say that the pouchy-faced Cuba-embargo enthusiast was never far from Gore's thoughts.
"Gore felt like Clinton never really took him seriously," says former Clinton Chief of Staff Leon Panetta. "When Gore overheard Clinton and [former Sec. of Energy Bill] Richardson in the White House bathroom talking about the bet they had that Clinton could take the 'biggest nerd in the Senate' and make him Vice-President, that was the last straw. Gore came running back to Joe, all apologies."
Some Washington veterans say that, whatever Gore's status with Lieberman in the past, it shouldn't be held against him now. "People shouldn't be too hard on Al," says former President George H. W. Bush. "It's hard to find a decent running mate in this town-- sooner or later they all do something to embarrass you. The whole time I was with Dan [Quayle, the former Vice-President and Indiana Senator], it seemed like his only mission in life was to make me look like an idiot."
"Senate boys are so immature," Bush added.
Others, however, are less sympathetic. "Oh, Gore's embarrassed because his former running mate turned out to be a total douchenozzle?" says Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). "Yeah, my heart bleeds peanut butter for him."
"The worst part," said a visibly morose Gore, "is that to this day I still see those Gore/Lieberman bumper stickers everywhere. Those will never be completely gone."
"[Lieberman] might as well have given me herpes."