the kiss of death

In an interview with George Stephanopoulos that will air tomorrow, Jimmy Carter endorses Al Gore for president.

Despite public pressure from Carter and others, the former President does not believe Gore will make a second bid for the White House saying, “I don’t think he will. I’ve put so much pressure on Al to run that he’s almost gotten aggravated with me.”

Carter told Stephanopoulos that he had not called Gore “lately” adding, “He almost told me, the last time I talked, ‘Don’t call me anymore.’”

Not that I think Al Gore will run in 08 (an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize should be consolation for any man—if he wins, of course). But I have a feeling Gore did tell Carter to get lost.

If you were a Democrat would you want Carter’s endorsement? Obviously not. He’s political poison—mostly because of his hard-ass anti-Israeli rhetoric, but not only because of that. He’s the prim, threadbare hectoring auntie of the Democratic party: an embarrassment.

He was shunted off to the side at Gerald Ford’s funeral. Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi all but banished him from the mainstream of the Democratic party after the publication of his recent book:

Pelosi: “With all due respect to former President Carter, he does not speak for the Democratic Party on Israel. Democrats have been steadfast in their support of Israel from its birth, in part because we recognize that to do so is in the national security interests of the United States. We stand with Israel now and we stand with Israel forever.

“The Jewish people know what it means to be oppressed, discriminated against, and even condemned to death because of their religion. They have been leaders in the fight for human rights in the United States and throughout the world. It is wrong to suggest that the Jewish people would support a government in Israel or anywhere else that institutionalizes ethnically based oppression, and Democrats reject that allegation vigorously.”

I know what Carter wants to go on Stephanopoulos’s show: he’s desperate to rehabilitate himself, because he has tarnished his image irreparably by going around the world and cozying up to the world’s worst dictators while lecturing to Americans that they just aren’t good enough. His legacy is in tatters.
The question is: why is Stephanopoulos giving Carter airtime?