(2003-12-08) -- Itinerant college professor Al Gore has reportedly signed a major endorsement deal with presidential hopeful Howard Dean valued at "somewhere in the Tiger Woods-Nike range," according to Donna Brazile, Mr. Gore's 2000 campaign manager.

"Al Gore brings a Dick Cheneyesque gravitas to the Dean campaign," said Ms. Brazile. "Yet few Democrats can stir the passions of voters the way Gore does. I think that of all the Al Gores I've known, this new one is the most exciting yet. He's worth whatever Dean is paying to get him."

The endorsement contract calls for Mr. Gore to make commercials and public appearances during which he'll say he thinks Mr. Dean is superior to the eight other Democrat presidential candidates including Senator Joseph Lieberman, whom Mr. Gore chose as his running mate in 2000.

In public, Mr. Gore will wear Dean apparel and put his personal signature on several of Mr. Dean's more popular issues. The Dean campaign hopes the Gore endorsement deal will make their candidate more appealing to "hip intellectuals" in addition to the Dean support base of angry metrosexuals.