Al Gore and the Democratic Party

We have been saying here the last few days that the Democratic Party is badly in need of a blast of new blood. Well in his Martin Luther King Day address Al Gore made me wonder if that blast of new blood might be a blast from the past.

In an address delivered in Washington to multiple standing ovations, Vice President Al Gore repeatedly attacked the Bush Administration for the expansion of executive power -- the ability of the government to wiretap its own citizens without legal authority and kidnap Americans abroad.

His speech -- which compares the wiretapping of Martin Luther King to the broad surveillance now imposed on Americans by President Bush -- called on Congress to resume its oversight responsibilities, and enjoined Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to appoint a special prosecutor. Gore was to be introduced by former Rep. Bob Barr, a Georgia Republican who has advocated for the constitutional right to privacy.

The text of the address can be found at the link above.

The significance of Gore's introduction by Conservative Republican Bob Barr should not be ignored. The Bush administration's federalist power grab is truly a bi-partisan issue. As we reported this morning Libertarian/Conservative Paul Craig Roberts is once again comparing the Bush administration to Nazi Germany.