Franken-Lies-And-the-Lying-Liars-Who-Tell

should have been an enormous credit to the man's vision became a symbol of his insidious,
compulsive dishonesty. Ironically, Gore was sometimes criticized via the Internet itself!
When a few people—like me—pointed out that he hadn't said that he had invented the
Internet, Ann Coulter responded: "In point of fact, ‘create' is a synonym for `invent.' Any thesaurus
will quickly confirm this." That may be true. But the very same thesaurus would show
that "friendly" is a synonym for "intimate." So, when Ann told the New York Observer that
she and I were "friendly," they knew it was her way of claiming that we are lovers, which we
most certainly are not. I am not currently having an affair with any Republican woman, but if
I were, it would be with Maine senator Olympia Snowe, whom I respect for voting her conscience.
Speaking of intimacy, let's get back to how Gore was buggered by his enemies in the
media.
Take the Love Story story, which is really more of a Hate Story story. Or a False
Story story. Read on, friend, for the true story of the false, hateful Love Story story.
In 1997, Gore was on Air Force II, chatting late into the night with a couple of reporters,
including Karen Tumulty of Time magazine. The conversation turned, as conversations
will, to movies and reminiscing about old friends. Gore mentioned that Erich Segal, the author
of Love Story, had told the Nashville Tennessean that the characters of Oliver Barrett and
Jenny Cavalleri had been based on him and Tipper. As Tumulty later recalled, "He said, `all I
know is that's what he [Segal] told reporters in Tennessee.'" She casually referred to this in
her seven-page profile as follows: "Gore said [Segal] used Al and Tipper as models for the
uptight preppy and his free-spirited girlfriend in Love Story."
Was Gore lying? Imagine how embarrassing it would be if he were! Just thinking
about it makes me embarrassed-not just for him, but for every vice president other than Spiro
Agnew, and to a lesser extent Dan Quayle. Thank goodness, then, that in 1980 the Nashville
Tennessean had indeed quoted Segal as saying that Tipper and Al had been the models for
the star-crossed lovers. Phew.
But here's where it all starts to go terribly, terribly wrong. It turns out the Tennessean
had misquoted Erich Segal. And when The New York Times contacted him, Segal confirmed
that Oliver Barrett was based partly on Gore and partly on Gore's roommate Tommy Lee
Jones (and, I like to think, a tiny bit on me)-but denied that Tipper was the model for poor