Gore Calls on Bush to Condemn 'Distinguished American' Limbaugh

Former Vice President Al Gore called on President Bush to condemn top talk radio host Rush Limbaugh on Wednesday, even though he once referred to Limbaugh as "a distinguished American."

"The president episodically poses as a healer and 'uniter,'" Gore began in a speech at New York University sponsored by Moveon.org.

"If he president really has any desire to play that role, then I call upon him to condemn Rush Limbaugh - perhaps his strongest political supporter - who said that the torture in Abu Ghraib was a 'brilliant maneuver' and that the photos were 'good old American pornography,' and that the actions portrayed were simply those of 'people having a good time and needing to blow off steam.'"

In a 1993 debate with Ross Perot on NAFTA, Gore called Limbaugh a "distinguished American" for supporting the Clinton-backed program.

"Distinguished Americans from Colin Powell to Tip O'Neill to Rush Limbaugh, Ross Perot, Jr., the head of his business, Mort Meyerson, Orson Swindle, the head of United We Stand, the last time, and Ross Perot, Sr., supported it until he started running for president and attempting to bring out the politics of fear," the then-vice president complained.

Reacting to Gore's comments, Limbaugh told his audience, "It says alot about Gore, it says he's perverse - that he would be arguing to confer greater rights on those who seek to murder millions of Americans, [rather] than calling for even tougher actions to seek them out and destroy them before they destroy us."

Limbaugh pointed out that it was under the Clinton-Gore administration that the U.S. turned down an offer to arrest Osama bin Laden in 1996, noting that Clinton himself has admitted to the blunder.

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