W. Post.: Tipper Played Whale Sounds to Drown Out Protesters, Bill Had Fridge on Porch of N.Y. Manse

The Washington Post Magazine ^ | Wednesday, November 13, 2002 | Liza Munday, with comments by Kristinn

[kristinn]

Buried in a lengthy Washington Post Magazine profile of former Vice President Al Gore, reporter Liza Munday lets loose with snarky and sublime observations about the man who woulda, coulda, shoulda been President and the man he served under who really shouldn't have been.

Almost like ABC News, which cut the Gore family's reactions to the daily protests outside the Vice President's official residence on Embassy Row in Washington, D.C., Mundy gives scant mention to the Gores' reaction to the protesters:

Much of this time, Gore directed the engagement while secluded in the vice president's house at the Naval Observatory, talking on the phone and e-mailing on his hand-held wireless. He was surrounded by Tipper and their four children--the adult children, Karenna, Kristin and Sarah, had converged on the house, and Albert, the teenager, was still in high school--who alternately played cards, worried, hoped and tried to distract one another. Outside, protesters were shouting things like "Get out of Cheney's house!" Tipper pushed boomboxes to the windows, pointed them at the hecklers, and played whale sounds and nature noises. "What are we going to do?" she says now. "Leave?"

To Mundy, playing whale sounds to drown out the real world must seem like a natural reaction for a liberal when the peasants are at the gates demanding their country back from those who betrayed her.

Further on in the article, Mundy relates the perils of "Pauline" Gore as he makes his way back to the states from Austria after the terrorist attacks of September 11.

Like a whipped puppy, Gore finds his way back to the home of his former abusive master, Bill Clinton. Mundy picks up the sordid, trashy tale:

While he and the aide were driving, Bill Clinton called. He'd been flown to the United States on military transport, and was now at home in New York. Bush was sending a plane to take him to National Cathedral. Why didn't Gore drive to Chappaqua and fly down with him? Clinton gave him directions to get to the house, so that's where Gore went, arriving in the middle of the night. Clinton had waited up. He was doing some renovating, with the result that there was a refrigerator on the front porch. "Al arrives at about 3:30 in the morning, sees the refrigerator on the porch, and the first thing he says is, 'I see you've managed to bring a little bit of Arkansas to New York,' " Clinton recalled in a statement for this article. "And I knew that after all he'd been through, he hadn't lost his sense of humor."

Sense of humor, my a$$, if Al thought more of the good folks in Arkansas (let alone his home state of Tennessee) he woulda, coulda, shoulda been President now.

Instead, he's a circus freak. The subject of piffling profiles by the likes Barbara Walters and Liza Mundy.

Those sounds in the distance Al Gore hears aren't the throngs of voters pleading for him to run again, they're the sounds of front porch refrigerators and beached whales crying, "Never Gore, never Gore,"

[anniegetyourgun]

This man is a sad and pathetic figure and will always be remembered as such in the annals of history. The psychotropic-medicated Tipper will have to be the strong one!

[Miss Marple]

You know, I had forgotten about that woman asking him that question, and his disgusting response.

One more reason why this man should never hold any office again, ever.

[SkyPilot]

The psychotropic-medicated Tipper will have to be the strong one!

Someone posted a picture of the Gore's new home, and next to it they posted a picture of the White House.

It was eerie, and weird. The Gore's new house looks just like the WH--minus the fountain. I am not kidding.

I wonder if Al and Tipper play dress up in their new digs in Nashville, pretending to exit Marine One on their South Lawn while shouting answers to imaginary reporters while emptying their groceries from Piggly Wiggly.

[SkyPilot]

You know, I had forgotten about that woman asking him that question, and his disgusting response.

My heart went out to that woman when I found out she had been raped herself.

[RightOnline]

May have had our differences in the past, but I must say that what you all did during those protests outside Gore's residence was brilliant. It won't be forgotten.

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

[Cvengr]

It's tough to be the guy who invented the Internet. /sarcasm off

[Consort]

Recorded history will also show that Clinton supported oral history.

[Semper911]

...pretending to exit Marine One on their South Lawn while shouting answers to imaginary reporters while emptying their groceries from Piggly Wiggly.

Ha Ha!!! I quite literally spewed my coffee on that one. LOL!

I love this place.

[RichInOC]

I thought the same thing...were they playing recorded whale sounds or making them themselves? (We're so bad....)

[friendly]

This thread is one of the funniest I have read on FR in a while!

[alnick]

Greta had someone from the Miami newspaper on her show last night who poo-pooed the idea that the Supreme Court selected Bush as president. He said that if the recount that was shut down because the clock ran out would have gone forward the way that Gore wanted, using the standards that Al Gore wanted, Bush would have won by three times the votes that he won by.

David Korn was there and disputed this by saying that if all of the "legitimate" ballots were counted, not just undervotes, that Gore would have picked up 6000 votes.

The Miami guy kind of chuckled and pointed out that the ballots that Korn was talking about were ballots with two holes punched in the president category. Of course, Korn for some reason, believes that if two candidates were selected, then Gore should have gotten those votes.

[ReleaseTheHounds]

Nice FReeping DC folks.

One of the GREAT delights during that frustrating period was joining the FREEP at the Naval Observatory that first Saturday after the election... Sort of misty and overcast, I can remember the JOLT of enthusiasm as we turned the corner on Mass Ave. and saw the ~1000-strong band of fellow Freepers with signs and flags raised, screaming our lungs out. Opposite us were about 12 Gore-ites... and the picture on the front page of the Washington Post that Sunday showed just the 12 Gore-ites! How perfect.

This article on the Gores has helped me to figure it out: Al Gore is Richard Nixon without the smarts... and, perhaps, without the paranoia. Nixon knew the 1960 election had been stolen from him, but he also knew (for his future electoral viability) it would do no good to protest (unlike Gore). Gore was always treated like a princeling (very much unlike Nixon), so he always felt entitled to the high office he sought. Also, unlike Nixon, Gore has always had a favorable press on his side, at least until lately. Gore is stupid enough to think he can make a successful run in 2004 -- he should hope that the Dems nominate someone else and that they suffer a massive washout like the Republicans did in 1964. Nixon then did massive party-building in 1966 that set-up his victory in 1968: one of the most amazing political comebacks in US history. Such a wash-out for the Demos in 2004 might (but I doubt it) set up a potential return for Big Fat Al in 2008 but he has already gone way too far to the left.

Let's face it, the Freepers were right: he's just a Sore-Loserman!

[hellinahandcart]

Tipper pushed boomboxes to the windows, pointed them at the hecklers, and played whale sounds and nature noises. "What are we going to do?" she says now. "Leave?"

I just have to ask--did you guys HEAR the "whale sounds and nature noises", did you SEE boomboxes at the windows, or is this just more bullcrapola from the Gores?

In other words, are they LYING about this too?

[ChadGore]

Freepers rock !

[Bernard]

It would have required a real sense of humor, and confidence in your own abilities and accomplishments to do something like that. Al Gore has neither of those qualities.

[jocon307]

"Those sounds in the distance Al Gore hears aren't the throngs of voters pleading for him to run again, they're the sounds of front porch refrigerators and beached whales crying, "Never Gore, never Gore,"

I love this, it's so surreal. The moaning of front porch refirigerators. I can hear them, really hear them in my mine. Brilliant!

[Jay Howard Smith]

Al Gore: To be forever known as the man who used to be our next President..!

[Diago]

I just have to ask--did you guys HEAR the "whale sounds and nature noises", did you SEE boomboxes at the windows, or is this just more bullcrapola from the Gores?

In other words, are they LYING about this too?

Good question. I was wondering the same thing.