The nonstop barrage of attacks on Al Gore from the far-right tells me one thing: they're terrified of the former Vice President and the influence he continues to wield. Last night on Scarborough Country, Republican strategist Terry Holt advanced for the umpteenth time the right's favorite Al Gore smear -- that he claimed to have invented the interent. This juvenile nonsense has been debunked time and time again, but since these hacks continue to employ it, here we go again.

Download Download

It all started when the wingnuts seized on this statement Al Gore made to Wolf Blitzer in 1999. Since the right is so devoid of substance and couldn't challenge Gore on a policy basis, they took this phrase and attacked Al Gore (with the help of the media who dutifully recited the attack) as a pompous liar and serial exaggerator; something that continues to this day.

Why don't we ask Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf, two men who could really claim to have "invented the internet," what they think about Al Gore:

[T]here is no question in our minds that while serving as Senator, Gore's initiatives had a significant and beneficial effect on the still-evolving Internet. The fact of the matter is that Gore was talking about and promoting the Internet long before most people were listening.

While his phrasing was clumsy and somewhat self-serving, the fact is, as Senator, Al Gore did take the legislative initiative and help pave the way for the internet as we know it today. Instead of acknowledging this, the wingnuts twist his words and attack his character. By now you think they would have grown up a little bit. Unfortunately, they never cease to amaze.