(2004-02-10) — As the John F. Kerry bandwagon continued to roll through presidential primaries in Virginia and Tennessee tonight, former vice president Al Gore took to the pulpit of a rural African-American church to lambaste the man he now says he’s sorry he endorsed.
With most of the vote counted, former Democrat frontrunner Howard Dean was in single digits, shoulder-to-shoulder with Al Sharpton and Dennis Kucinich.
“Howard Dean betrayed this country!,” Mr. Gore shouted as the congregation cheered. “I’ll tell you, it is not a minor matter to take the loyalty and patriotic feelings of the American people and trifle with them. Nor is it trivial to pilfer $40 million — 89 percent of it from average Americans — and throw it away on advertising and web sites and plane trips and motels and latte and pizza.”
Mr. Gore retracted his endorsement of Mr. Dean and suggested that he had been enticed to back the former frontrunner under false pretenses.
With rhythmic speech pattern that has become his trademark, Mr. Gore said, “I tried, and I tried. But Dean lied, and once again, my career has died.”
