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Tipper-Hillary Feud May Push Al Gore Into Race
Former second lady Tipper Gore is urging her husband, Al, to challenge Hillary Clinton for the 2008 presidential nomination - in what may be a score-settling move against the woman Mrs. Gore has long regarded as "difficult" and overly ambitious. "If he were going to run in the future, of course I would support him," Mrs. Gore told ABC News' Claire Shipman on Tuesday. "I think he'd be a fantastic president. He already got a majority of votes of people in this country once, and so that says something." Relations between Mrs. Gore and the first lady-turned-presidential front-runner have never been good. In 2001, Vanity Fair magazine quoted aides to the two women who said they basically despised each other. "Hillary thinks that Tipper is an unintellectual, nice lady who doesn't have a brain in her head," a Clinton aide claimed. "Tipper thinks Hillary's an ambitious, rather uncoordinated, grasping, difficult woman," a Gore insider countered.
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The rift between Mrs. Clinton and Mrs. Gore grew much worse after President Clinton admitted he carried on a White House affair with a 23-year-old intern. "Tipper's people put out that she and the girls were appalled" and Mrs. Clinton never forgot it, a friend of the former first lady told the New York Times in October 2000. The Times added: "Even Mrs. Gore's normally tight-lipped spokeswoman, Camille Johnston, spoke disparagingly of Mrs. Clinton in a recent interview, comparing the two women while making a point about how little Mrs. Gore cares about her public image." "With Mrs. Clinton, there was always such a concerted effort with image," Ms. Johnston said. "She went from housewife to cookie lady to whatever. Mrs. Gore hasn't done that, so it's easier. She hasn't had to turn into somebody else." Mrs. Clinton returned the insult in November 2002, when she refused to endorse a second White House bid by Mr. Gore - despite the fact that he was the undisputed presidential front-runner at the time. Three weeks later, Gore stunned the political world by announcing his retirement from politics. Mrs. Gore is now dismissing the myriad reports of bad blood between herself and Mrs. Clinton, telling ABC on Tuesday, "The whole thing reminds me of junior high school." Asked, however, whether her husband might challenge Hillary in 2008, Tipper sounded less than certain that Mr. Gore's denials would hold, explaining cryptically, "He is saying he's not interested in running in '08." Editor's note:
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