'Early Show' Offers Love Piece on Al Gore

After grilling White House spokesman Tony Snow, the March 22 edition of CBS’s "The Early Show," followed with a fawning story on former Vice President Al Gore and his testimony on Capitol Hill. Anchor Russ Mitchell kicked it off calling Gore "a big celebrity with a message about global warming."

Correspondent Gloria Borger exclaimed the former vice president "looked like a winner." CBS then played a sound bite of Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) offering praise to Mr. Gore calling him "a role model for us all." After briefly playing a clip of Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX) grilling Al Gore, Borger called him a "professor" and reminding the audience that "he could still run for president." The transcript is below.

RUSS MITCHELL: The one man still not in the race for the White House, former Vice President Al Gore. Returning to Capitol Hill as a big celebrity with a message about global warming. CBS News political correspondent Gloria Borger reports.

GLORIA BORGER: It was mostly a day of handshakes and welcome backs for former Vice President Al Gore. The environmental evangelist had friends if not converts, on both sides of the Capitol, as he preached global warming.

FORMER VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE: When CO2 goes up, temperature goes up. That is why 20 of the 21 hottest years ever measured in the human record have been in the last 25 years.

BORGER: The last time Gore was on Capitol Hill, he was a bit thinner and in the awkward position of certifying his own loss to George Bush. Now a little heavier and sportier, he looked like a winner. His environmental movie having grabbed an Oscar, Democrats couldn't be friendlier if they tried.

SENATOR BARBARA BOXER (D-CA): Let me just say you did good, Mr. Vice President. You really are, in so many ways, a role model for us all.

GORE: You don't give out any kind of statue or anything?

BOXER: I'm going to give you --

BORGER: But there were non-believers like Republican Joe Barton who questioned Gore's science.

GORE: The idea that that CO2.

REPRESENTATIVE JOE BARTON (R-TX): I hope there's an answer in here somewhere.

GORE: May I --

BARTON: I'd like to have an answer to the straight question.

GORE: I'm, I'm, well, you asked quite a few of them.

BORGER: And then there was Al Gore, the professor --

GORE: I believe it's enzymatic hydrolysis, some people call it cellulosic ethanol, ligno cellulosic, which is a bio diesel form --

BORGER: Gore gave as good as he got from Republicans and one Democrat, Hillary Clinton, didn't exactly gush all over him because he could still run for president. Gloria Borger, CBS News, Washington.