As part of his noncampaign, the former VP is returning this week to Capitol Hill for the first time since he left the White House to testify before the House and Senate about global warming. Gore will warn that the problem is accelerating so fast that any solution must be more than incremental. “The danger is they’ll do some small fix that allows them to claim credit without facing up to the problem,” says an adviser who did not want to be on the record seeming to disparage Congress.
A leading indicator of his intentions could be Gore’s waistline. The theory is that slimming down will be a signal he intends to run. “He has lost a few pounds, and Hillary can read into that what she wants,” says a longtime adviser who declined to be identified discussing his boss’s figure. Gore has always been a voracious eater, and at 58, the pounds don’t come off so easily. He is trying to be healthier, working out daily when he can.
Gore is also finishing a book that sure seems like a prelude to something. “The Assault on Reason,” to be published in May, is about “the forces in society that are undermining democracy,” says Roy Neel, Gore’s chief of staff. The manuscript has gone through three rewrites in the past month because of new Bush administration scandals. Gore undoubtedly knows that he’d lose his iconic status the minute he got in the race. But Earth Day is coming up. Laurie David and Sheryl Crow will lead a college tour that will culminate with a rally in Washington. Perfect setting for a presidential announcement, but Gore won’t be there. He’ll be conducting a virtual reunion of the thousand “climate messengers” he has trained to carry on his crusade.
