Demagogue

Was Al Gore guilty of hyperbole when he delivered his recent speech in Saudi Arabia citing "terrible abuses" that Muslims supposedly suffered in post-9/11 America? Probably. But Jack Kelly of RealClearPolitics.com hurts his own credibility by playing the guilt-by-association card in this shameful manner:

... [Gore] traveled to Saudi Arabia to make a speech ... (at) the annual Jeddah economic forum, which is sponsored in part by the family of Osama bin Laden (which claims to have distanced itself from the family black sheep).*

It's the kind of tactic we'd expect of Ann Coulter. Then, after suggesting that there are only a few dots that separate Gore from bin Laden the terrorist, Kelly wonders aloud how much money Gore may have been paid for his speech:

Mr. Gore has not disclosed how much he was paid for his words of wisdom. It probably is less than the $267,000 former president Bill Clinton was paid for speaking to the group in 2002, but odds are his fee was in six figures.

Would Gore's words have been any more pleasing to Kelly if the former veep had delivered them for free? I seriously doubt it.

* - Last set of parentheses was in the original column.