Article: White House will be the Green House Under Gore

It's pretty much a given that about half of all Democrats are still lukewarm about the Clinton-Obama-Edwards hand being dealt them. The unseen ace in the deck is Al Gore.

Yet many of us are growing hoarse urging the former Vice President to run for president. Even as we're bracing ourselves for possible disappointment that he won't commit to a candidacy, hope continues to fly high and expectation flutters in the political breeze.

Gore says that he's determined to make climate change his number-one priority in years to come. Can you think of a better way for that to happen than Gore running, and winning back the White House?

Moreover, he can turn the White House into the Green House.

By transforming 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue into a symbolic showcase of eco-friendly, energy-efficient technology, Gore will be able to influence attitudes overnight not only in the political capital but all across America and the world. This will be the kind of audacious, sensible act that can serve as an inspiration to households and businesses everywhere concerned about the environment.

The White House could add a new Green Room to the visitors' tour. There's already the Blue Room, China Room and the State Dining Room. The Green Room would help educate the 2,000,000 annual visitors on environmental and global-warming issues.

Former presidents and first ladies have usually occupied themselves with minor interior decorating matters after moving into the White House. Some exceptions include Nixon who installed a one-lane bowling alley in an underground workspace (it was paid by friends of course.) A swimming pool and cabana was installed by Gerald Ford. The Clintons installed an outdoor spa.

Harry S. Truman referred to the White House as a "glamorous prison," the "great white sepulcher of ambitions." Now the same building can be a gleaming emerald jewel with a Home Makeover: the Gore Edition.

Gore took heat last year when it was revealed that his Nashville, Tennessee mansion and pool house siphoned a whole lotta electricity from the power grid. The 10,000-square foot home's output of 191,000 kilowatt hours in 2006 was thirteen times more than the typical Nashville household. While this usage was compensated with installation of solar panels and buying of carbon offsets, it gave the rabid right another reason to mock the man they can't stop loving to hate.

Having Gore in the White House will make conservatives' bile turn an even deeper shade of green. It's what they deserve for their stiff-necked, irrational resistance to climate change, among other sins.

The only green in the current administration has been from all the money flowing from backroom sweetheart deals to Bush/Cheney cronies, Iraq war profiteers, and the wealthy.

I look forward to Earth Day when the Gores might want to bathe the White House in green flood lights.

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Bill Katovsky is editor of the just-published "The World According to Gore: The Incredible Vision of the Man Who Should Be President."
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