An Inconvenient Son
Al Gore III not such a GOOD Boy
By Judi McLeod
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Papa Al Gore, who's got first place-monopoly on saving the environment, is no advocate of smoking in the boardroom. But the youngest of his and Tipper's brood of four has been turning Mother Earth's air blue with marijuana.
It seems that Al Gore III has been doing pot off and on, ever since graduating from knee pants.
Junior's last run in with the law happened on Independence Day. Pulled over by sheriff's deputies about 2:15 a.m. on Wednesday, the 24-year-old son of the former Vice President was allegedly speeding at about 160km/h on the San Diego Freeway.
When deputies searched the car they found les than 28 grams of marijuana and prescription medication, including painkillers and a drug used to treat attention deficit disorder--sans prescriptions.
Daddy could take comfort that his son was at least driving an environmentally appropriate hybrid Toyota Prius when he was pulled over.
The arrest of Gore Junior, dubbed "An Inconvenient Son" by radio talk show giant Michael Savage, came as his father prepared for the launch of Live Earth, a series of global rock concerts in seven cities highlighting climate change.
Gore's Inconvenient Son was pulled over and arrested for marijuana possession in December 2003 in Maryland when he was a student at Harvard University and was required to have substance abuse counseling as part of a plea bargain.
He was also charged with reckless driving in North Carolina in 2000, and in September 2002 military police arrested him on suspicion of drunk driving near a military base in Virginia.
Apparently a pothead from the tender age of 13, Junior is said to have got caught smoking pot during a school dance. That escapade is chronicled in Newsweek journalist Bill Turque's book Inventing Al Gore. Papa and Tipper were said to have successfully lobbied the press to spike the story.
In those days, Gore Jr. was attending St. Alban's, where administration decided to suspend him.
You risk the same kind of hissy fit thrown by Elton John when made to hike 50 yard to a Concert for Diana appearance when you punish the son of a vice president.
Al Gore III was papa-yanked out of St. Albans and enrolled in what Radar calls "the more progressive" Sidwell Friends School, where Chelsea Clinton was by sheer coincidence a student.
Gore Jr. seems to have an inconvenient way with timing. It was just five days before his father was scheduled to accept the Democratic presidential nomination when he was arrested in North Carolina for speeding.
In 2002, the son of the former vice president got himself arrested in Virginia for drunk driving in the vicinity of a military base. In 2003, he was arrested in the D.C. suburb of Bethesda, Maryland for marijuana possession.
A proverbial chip off the old block, Gore Jr. doesn't just make headlines, he writes them.
The plaque on his office door shows Al Gore III as associate publisher of a magazine with the unlikely name of…Good.
Launched in 2004, Good is touted as "the new magazine on how to give away your money, written by rich kids for rich kids."
That's the latter day philanthropy of Gore Jr. and his best friend Ben Goldhirsh, son of the late founder of Inc. magazine.
"Ben inherited a large chunk of change from his pop with the intention that he do something entrepreneurial," (www.gawker.com).
"You wouldn't be able to tell from the way he looked or how he talked that he could probably buy you and the town your grew up in," is how Blogcritics, an online magazine, a community of writers and readers from around the globe puts it.
If anything, Good is glib.
"Recycling is GOOD. Be GOOD, don't litter" was used in one of its blow-in cards, considered the print media's version of Internet pop-up ads.
The Los Angeles-based Good celebrated a New York launch on Sept. 21, 2006.
Al Gore Sr. who attended the launch gave his son's magazine, "five stars out of five".
Al Gore III's proudly beaming daddy said Good could tap into making the world a better place and be really meaningfully successful in the market place.
"And why not do both at the same time?"
Meanwhile, like father like son.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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