Gore and Lieberman: Moving in Opposite Directions

It's interesting how the presidential pair from 2000 have moved so far away from each other.

Gore has:
1) Become a media-critic and a journalism teacher; even publishing a wonky book on the triumph of propaganda and the war on reason.
2) Rededicated himself to Kyoto activism
3) Been a consistent Iraq War opponent. Reportedly, he actually embraced and thanked Ralph Nader at a book signing.

Lieberman has:
1) Become published by the Weekly Standard and National Review with increasing regularity. Also plays the propagandist on Fox News and other MSM outlets in favor of the admin's foreign policy.
2) Sold what was left of his soul by shilling to religious maniacs like John Hagee for true-believer cash. Supports Hagee's fundraising for fundamentalist, indoctrinated settlements on Palestinean land.
3) Is now the primary propagandist for a new crusade against Iran that might well bring about a nuclear holocaust--once again with the passionate support of the deluded "I wish Left Behind were my life" types.

Which begs the questions:
1) What did these men have in common in 2000 to begin with? Did Gore have no second-thoughts about the implications of Lieberman's Orthodox faith and Lieberman's neocon circle of friends or were these characteristics seen as assets?
2) Can Gore be forgiven for propelling Lieberman to prominence when choices like Graham, Kerry, and Edwards were available?
3) What drove Gore to be who he is, and Lieberman to be who he is?

Gore chose Lieberman in order to cash in on the "naughty, nasty boy" anti-Clinton sentiment (instead of being grateful to Clinton for keeping his career alive.) That mistake, followed by others, is why we have Smirk behind the wheel today.

(And IMHO why Gore needs to stay retired from politics.)

Him and Tipper prayed on it etc.

Now I've made some bad decisions in my life too so I can understand. But I'm generally curious if Gore has ever reflected on this in the light of recent events and whether he now regrets it in hindsight.

I'd be willing to bet that Gore barely knew Lieberman.

Lieberman was a nobody back then. He probably didn't have his neocon friends yet; he didn't sign the PNAC letter after all (now of course he's in solid with those folks).

His Orthodox faith was and is completely irrelevant, and Gore would have had had no second thoughts there.

Now, given his embrace of the Christian Zionists, I'm not so sure. He's entirely too comfortable with mixing faith and politics. And there were indications of this before 2000 as well--just not so nefarious.

according to an interview I read. Maybe New York/Conn. professional types that he grew up or went to school with? I'd be interested to know who has influenced him.

At that time I'm thinking Gore probably saw a lot of this as more of an asset than a deterrent (he wanted a "sophisticated" thinker lol). And as you note Liebermann was not a PNAC signatory at the time.

of rabid support for Israel. Our local Conservative synagogue has time and again associated itself with antiwar positions, and many members speak out consistently against Israeli militarism.

I just thought that had to be said.

Lieberman's Sabbath, I forgot which, but Lieberman wouldn't operate electricity on those days.

Al Gore has always been a person of high integrity and Clinton did him no favors with the Lewinsky Scandal which of course the corporate media covered ad nauseum. Please raise your hand if you ever saw Clinton hug Lewinsky more than twenty times, the same clip over an over. Lieberman spoke out against this transgression more forcefully than anyone else.

I also believe the ripples in the pond we all create with our actions, affect each other in ways, we'll never know. The movie "It's a Wonderful Life" captures this concept most eloquently, when George Bailey was taken out of the equation, most everyone turned negative. In short had Al Gore and Lieberman been awarded the offices, they were elected to, Lieberman could have turned out to be an entirely different person today.