WASHINGTON — Al Gore paused during his descent from atop the marble Capitol steps on his way to spar with an old rival, Newt Gingrich. Grinning as he glided toward a former aide he had spotted, Gore joked, “Just like old times.”
Maybe for Gore. But Democrats running the House these days made sure it wasn’t for Gingrich, the former House speaker.
The two returned to Capitol Hill on Friday to debate climate change legislation. But Gingrich, the face of the 1994 Republican Revolution, wasn’t allowed to share the stage with Gore, the Democrats’ Nobel Prize-winner and subject of an Oscar-winning documentary.
It was Gingrich, who is considering a 2012 presidential campaign, who waited his turn before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in an anteroom. He would have to defer as Gore and his on-camera partner, retired Sen. John Warner, R-Va., appeared first.
“I have read all 648 pages of this bill,” Gore bragged, a boast that would surprise no one who caught his teacher’s-pet performance in the 2000 presidential race. “It took me two transcontinental flights on United Airlines to finish it.”
Also not surprising, Gore endorsed the bill.
Gingrich, who opposes the bill, said he had read a bit more than 200 pages, until he got to a reference about a Jacuzzi. That was enough, he said, calling the legislation an energy tax and a power grab for the Energy Department.
Both men settled back into the camera-hogging, hyperbolic styles they had honed during their days of power in Washington.
Gore at times transitioned from his latest role as global statesman to contentious politician, a skill he developed after years serving as a senator, vice president and presidential nominee. He routinely took up all of the allotted minutes for an answer, often turning to give Warner a chance to speak only after the red light came on signaling no more time.
Gingrich, ever the history teacher, told the story of the Viking King Canute after he took his seat before the committee. It was King Canute — Gingrich’s namesake, he said — who tried and failed to push back the ocean in an attempt to show his supporters that he was not all-powerful.
“This is a hint,” Gingrich said. The bill, he added, shows “failure to learn the lesson” of King Canute.
Gingrich read a statement to the panel that he had released on his website. He opposes the legislation and, in a characteristic move, has proposed his own 38-point plan called “green conservatism.”
He didn’t mince words when asked about the prospect of actually reducing carbon as outlined by Democrats and President Barack Obama.
“A fantasy,” he said.
