Al Gore: 'Toward Sustainable Capitalism'

Al Gore, former U.S. vice president, and David Blood, are co-founders of Generation Investment Management.

Gore serves as the chairman and Blood is the senior partner.

We're all familiar with Gore. Learn a little about Blood.

Previously, David served as co-CEO and CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management. His responsibilities included all aspects of the global business including portfolio management, sales and client service, risk management and infrastructure. David received a B.A. from Hamilton College and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business. He is on the Board of Hamilton College, Social Finance, New Forests and SHINE; on the Investment Committee of the Acumen Fund and the Advisory Board of Bridges Ventures.

In today's Wall Street Journal, Gore and Blood write a column addressing our economic woes, "Toward Sustainable Capitalism."

I think Blood wrote the column and maybe Gore read it.

The column discusses "long-term incentives" and "short-term greed." Basically, it's Lefty stuff.

The only reason I mention it at all is because of the incredibly bad timing of the publication of the piece.

It's always been hard for me to take Gore seriously. I don't think of him as an intellectual at all. In general, Gore's gravitas factor has plummeted.

So much of his global warming shtick has been debunked.

Then there are the several tabloid reports offering the "real" reason for Gore's 40-year marriage falling apart. One claims he had an affair with Laurie David. Another claims Gore is gay.

Yesterday, the National Enquirer ran the story that Gore was accused in the sexual assault of a masseuse in Portland, Oregon.

For the most part, when the Enquirer makes shocking allegations about a political figure, I now assume there's some truth to the story.

Unfortunately for Gore, the story wasn't dismissed as just another rumor.

Portland media gave credence to the Enquirer's "exclusive." It wasn't, in fact, completely fabricated tabloid trash.

UPDATE: [T]he Portland Tribune had the story two years ago, and writes that it "chose at that time not to publish a story."

...Portland Tribune executive editor Mark Garber declined to discuss the story in detail, but did shed a bit more light on why his paper had chosen not to run with it, based on what he called "many of the test points that we would normally have to determine whether there was sufficient evidence that something inappropriate had occurred."

"We weren’t able to meet our own test," he said.

The paper also quoted a Gore spokeswoman, Kalee Krieder, saying, “Not only has there not been a settlement, we haven’t been approached about one nor can we imagine any basis for one.”

In effect, the Enquirer's exposé pushed the Portland Tribune to admit its knowledge of the story and explain why it sat on it for two years.

Does anyone doubt that if the story had involved a Republican politician the Tribune would have splashed it immediately?

Portland woman says Al Gore groped her in hotel room

A Portland massage therapist gave local police a detailed statement last year alleging that former Vice President Al Gore groped her, kissed her and made unwanted sexual advances during a late-night massage session in October 2006 in a suite at the upscale Hotel Lucia.

The woman told investigators that she informed two friends and kept the clothes she wore that night, including her black pants with stains on them. But Portland police didn't contact any of the woman's friends, obtain the potential evidence or interview anyone at the hotel, records show.

"The case was not investigated any further because detectives concluded there was insufficient evidence to support the allegations," the Portland Police Bureau said in a prepared statement Wednesday, responding to inquiries from all over the world after the National Enquirer broke the story on its website.

In her detailed Jan. 8, 2009, statement to a Portland sexual assault investigator, the woman said she was called to the hotel about 10:30 p.m. Oct. 24, 2006, to provide a massage for Gore, who was registered under the name "Mr. Stone." Once inside his ninth-floor suite, she said he pushed her hand to his groin, fondled her buttocks and breasts, tongue-kissed her and threw her down on the bed as she tried to thwart his advances.

She also said Gore had finished a beer and opened a bottle of Grand Marnier while she was in the room.

While the Police Bureau considers it a closed case, it said it would reopen it if new evidence is received.

Portland police spokeswoman Detective Mary Wheat said police didn't go to the hotel or talk to the woman's friends because it wouldn't help prove or disprove the woman's allegations.

"We're not disputing Al Gore was in the hotel room with this woman," Wheat said. "The two people in that room were Mr. Gore and this woman. If a bellhop came in and saw something, that would be different."

Gore hasn't been charged in this case.

His accuser could be seizing an opportunity, hoping to gain from Gore's highly publicized split from his wife, Tipper. She could be lying.

In any event, I don't think this is a good time for Gore to be lecturing about capitalism and greed.

At the moment, he's tabloid fodder. He belongs on Jerry Springer, not published in the Wall Street Journal.

Maybe, like the disgraced Eliot Spitzer, Gore can redeem himself someday and host a show on CNN.