Portland authorities have cleared Al Gore of criminal wrongdoing in the sex assault case filed by masseuse Molly Hagerty. Too predictably, right-wing websites are already asserting that the fix was in; that Portland being a strongly Liberal city couldn't possibly have done a real investigation and Gore, of course, paid bribes to get that outcome. (One decent joke I saw on three sites was that he didn't pay them off with cash. He gave them Carbon Credits.)
It's sad that political rancor has reached this level in America. The premise seems to be that if you don't like a guy's politics or public statements, then any accusation against him has to be true. The claims of Ms. Hagerty always seemed pretty feeble…and I don't just mean because she failed a polygraph and her "semen stain" evidence turned out not to be that. I mean there was no reason to believe her except maybe that you hated Al Gore and thought this would wound him. So a lot of folks believed her and will probably never let go of that. There's no possible proof in this world that will ever convince some folks that Barack Obama isn't a Muslim who was born anywhere except in the United States, either. Why? Because the lie empowers them and the truth isn't useful.