Wednesday Reader

The next time someone--say, your beloved and intelligent but inexplicably Republican brother--rails in your direction about the liberal media, point him to Vanity Fair's in-depth examination of how that same media torched Al Gore during the 2000 campaign.

There's no doubt that some things have changed about Al Gore since 2000. He has demonstrated inner strength, rising from an excruciating defeat that would have crushed many men. Beyond that, what has changed is that he now speaks directly to the public; he has neither the patience nor the need to go through the media.

Eight years ago, in the bastions of the "liberal media" that were supposed to love Gore—The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, CNN—he was variously described as "repellent," "delusional," a vote-rigger, a man who "lies like a rug," "Pinocchio." Eric Pooley, who covered him for Time magazine, says, "He brought out the creative-writing student in so many reporters.… Everybody kind of let loose on the guy."

In other news, Larry Craig is thinking about not resigning after all, and has hired Michael Vick's attorney to represent him. This is gonna get ugly, fast, and--dare I say it--the fur's gonna fly.

Finally, on a lighter note--sorry, Michiganders--the Wolverines have pulled off a feat so audacious as to have never been seen before, taking a tumble of unprecedented proportions and taking their stupid six-note fight song along with them:

The final fallout from a disastrous opening weekend for Michigan came Tuesday, when the Wolverines dropped all the way out of The Associated Press Top 25, an unprecedented fall from No. 5 to unranked.

Since the AP poll expanded to 25 teams in 1989, no team has taken a bigger tumble in one week.

Hail!