Al Gore Tells Democratic Critics To Toe the Party "Principle"

NEW YORK, Aug 4 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Fueling growing rumors that former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore may be looking to run for office in the next presidential election, Gore lashed out Sunday at critics within his own Democratic party, saying it was more important than ever to stand up for "the people not the powerful" and rejecting accusations his stance was anti-business.

"This struggle between the people and the powerful ... is still the central dynamic of politics in 2002," the former vice president said in a bylined article in Sunday's New York Times.

"The suggestion from some in our party that we should no longer speak that truth, especially at a time like this, strikes me as bad politics and wrong in principle," Gore said.

The article was a direct response to complaints from the influential Democratic Leadership Council last week that such sentiments - pushed hard by Gore during his failed 2000 presidential campaign - would alienate undecided voters in November's crucial legislative elections.

Gore argued that the national economic debate was fundamentally one of "principle" - a principle that remained as valid now as during the presidential race.

"Standing up for the people, not the powerful, was the right choice in 2000. In fact, it is the ground of the Democratic Party's being, our meaning and our mission," he said, recalling warnings he made two years ago that voting George W. Bush into the presidency meant pandering to a new generation of special interests and power brokers.

"Some considered this warning anti-business. It was nothing of the sort," he said, adding that every passing day of the Bush presidency "demonstrates that it was merely the truth."

The recent plunge in the stock market has been accompanied by an equally drastic slump in public confidence in the government, Gore argued, challenging the president to make public the names of the energy company lobbyists who advised him on energy and environmental legislation.

"What has been put at risk is nothing less than the future of democratic capitalism," he said, highlighting the spate of corporate scandals that sent the stock markets into freefall and wiped out the savings of countless small investors.

"Uncommon power has combined with uncommon greed to create immense deceptions and losses.