Gore Divorce Shatters Washington

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, Algore and Tipper amidst all of this, separated. Forty years of marriage. The interesting thing about this, you can’t say, ‘You know, they just didn’t really know each other. They got married too soon. Their lives changed just way too much.’ Forty years. Forty years and you split up. That is not comforting. Listen to Sally Quinn. She is the social doyenne of the nation’s capital. Sally Quinn yesterday on the CBS Early Show — oh, by the way, CBS.com, the website, blaming Bush for the split-up. I’m not kidding you. Not some kook fringe blog. CBS is blaming Bush for the Algore-Tipper separation. Why? Florida 2000 because the presidency was denied Al and he’s never, ever gotten over it, he never, ever will get over it, and the marriage just suffered, it was like losing two children to death and so forth, you can’t put a marriage back together after this kind of thing, it was horrible thing. Sally Quinn on the CBS Early Show was asked a question by the fill-in host, ‘What happened here? This caught everybody off guard. I’m sure it caught you off guard as well, Sally.’

QUINN: Totally. And the interesting thing is that usually when something like this happens you get a sense of glee, people sort of saying, ‘I told you so,’ or, ‘I knew it,’ or whatever. I have only encountered sadness. And as you can imagine, I’ve been on the phone with friends ever since I heard it yesterday, and everyone feels as though somehow their own marriages have split up. It’s — you know, watching the Gores is sort of looking at the possibilities of what a good marriage could be, and when they — when it doesn’t work for them you sort of think, ‘Oh, my God, maybe it’s not possible.’

RUSH: So Sally Quinn thinks, ‘If they split up, are Ben and I gonna split up? If Algore and Tipper can’t make it, what about Ben and me?’ Everybody is also saying how the hell does this happen, how do the Clintons outlast the Gores in the marriage sweepstakes? I mean of all the couples you would think that might have some problems there, you would think Bill and Hillary. Washington is so incestuous. I don’t understand thinking like this. ‘The interesting thing is that usually when something like this happens you get a sense of glee, ‘I told you so, I knew it.’ But I’ve only encountered sadness, and as you can imagine, I’ve been on phone with friends ever since I heard it. It’s as though their own marriages have split up.’ How many of you, I must ask, how many of you who have known friends who got divorced felt like your marriage was dissolving at the same time? Any of you? You know what you’re thinking about when a couple you know gets divorced? You’re thinking, ‘Okay, which one of them do we like best? Which one are we going to continue to socialize with and which one are we gonna ostracize.’ That’s what you’re thinking. You’re not thinking, ‘Oh, my God, oh, my God, my marriage is in trouble, too. Why, Biff and Sally here just split up.’ By the way, our microphones were inside the Gore house recently, give you an idea of what might have actually gone down. Here, listen to this.

(playing of Algore spoof)

RUSH: Behind the scenes at the Algore palatial mansion. In The Politico: ‘A Model Political Marriage’s End — The public Gores were a model American family: handsome and successful. Their Christmas cards featured four attractive children — three daughters and a son. But they were also easy to identify with, an ordinary American family, accessible because of their occasional problems.’ Do you believe this? ‘They struggled with their weight. Their son, Albert, was busted for possessing marijuana at St. Albans, the Washington school his father had attended. Tipper, toward the end of the Clinton years, opened up about her struggle with depression. Their life together helped make Gore the Paul McCartney of the Clinton administration — the normal, likable one.’ I’m saying, what? (laughing) The Gores get divorced because of a hanging chad, folks, that’s the story.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I really can’t believe that it’s going to be up to me to explain all this. All right, you want me to explain it to you? The Gore divorce. I’m stunned none of my bright, overrated staff understand what really happened here. You separate after a 40-year marriage? I mean, that’s… (sigh) That’s just not done. How often do you hear about that? Now, what it seems to me… This a pure, wild guess speculation, but it’s also intelligence guided by experience. If you are separating after 40 years, it means that there’s been trouble in paradise for many years. However, look at what’s happened now. The kids are all gone; they’re out of the nest.

She stood out of the way and let Algore make his gazillions. She gets out just before Algore starts the drooling old man part of his life. She’s rich and she’s got her whole life ahead of her. Now… (interruption) It doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter, Snerdley. Doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. What matters here is… (interruption) You think I’m being too cynical about this, Dawn? (interruption) Aw, see? Well… (interruption) Okay. If you don’t want to buy that then you come up with your own theory — and admit that you don’t have one. You are as puzzled as everybody else. That’s my wild guess. (interruption) No, she wasn’t afraid he was going to run for president again. She’d probably be happy about that in one way or another.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Margaret in Indianapolis, I’m glad you called. Great to have you here.

CALLER: Thank you. Thank you for having me. I just wanted to make a prediction that I really believe it will come out that Algore cheated on his wife.

RUSH: That’s hard to envision.

CALLER: Not for me.

RUSH: Because you need a willing participant there. That’s hard to — I don’t know. It’s hard to envision.

CALLER: Hey, if Bill Clinton can find someone.

RUSH: Well, he’s got power crackling in those jeans. Remember that story in the Washington Post? Catalina Island in California, back in his first term, power crackling in his jeans. You don’t associate anything but geekdom with Algore.

CALLER: I know. I know. And who knows who it was.

RUSH: But there are people who love Charles Manson. There’s no accounting for who loves who. You might have a point. I mean who would ever think any woman could possibly love a criminal, but they do. They have jailhouse relationships with these clowns. Love is the one thing nobody can explain. They’ve tried for decades, eons, nobody can. You know something else, Margaret? All of this talk, the Gores had a model marriage, Sally Quinn and all these people wondering, ‘Oh, my God, if it happened to them, my God, it could happen to me, oh, no.’ Where was this reaction when John Edwards got divorced? I mean, were they not the model couple as well, add the wife having cancer, I mean the picture they painted of that. Do you realize how close they got to the White House? It’s scary.

CALLER: See, it’s funny, I don’t have that reaction. If anything it just makes me feel more solid about the man I have and I have no fear of that.

RUSH: I am happy to hear that. Good for you. Good for you. But these women like Sally Quinn, look, I’m sure she sees it my way, I guarantee you she sees what I see, a chance to get out while the getting is good before the guy goes broke. The kids are gone, everybody’s married, all the reasons you hang in when things aren’t going well are fini. Why do we assume it’s the woman who pulled the plug? Because it’s Gore, James, that’s why. It’s Gore. That’s why everybody’s assuming that Tipper pulled the plug. That’s not hard to figure out. (interruption) Look, is it? You know, your natural sexism, you’re saying, ‘Okay, it must be something she did wrong that Gore is getting out.’ Right? Could be. Could be. (laughing) I don’t know. It’s like Margaret here speculating there was an affair. It’s the first I’ve heard of anybody thinking that because there has to be somebody willing to go along here. And I don’t know, folks.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Oak Park, Illinois, this is Louise.

CALLER: Hi, Rush.

RUSH: Hi. How are you?

CALLER: Oh, it’s so wonderful to talk to you.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: You know, you are to we, us, the godfather of the Conservative Party and the airwaves, and you are Don Rush.

RUSH: Don Rush, yes.

CALLER: And you know ‘don’ is a term of endearment and respect for a remarkable man. That’s what ‘don’ means. So you’re don. But I called to agree with you, Don, about the Tipper Gore divorce, and I think it’s an agreement between the two of them to protect Gore’s fortune. Somehow… You know, like if Tipper gets a great deal of money on that, who knows what would happen to his fortune if all of this global warming things goes wrong. You know what I mean?

RUSH: Well, they wouldn’t have to get divorced for that.

CALLER: Well, somehow I don’t know if his fortune would be at risk, somehow, in his name and if they put a whole bunch of it in Tipper’s name —

RUSH: No, no, no. No, no, no, no. Tipper, as the spouse, he could give her any amount of the portfolio, put it in her name.

CALLER: Yeah, I —

RUSH: He can put it all in her name, but he could take whatever’s not invested in the hoax.

CALLER: But I somehow think they didn’t ‘grow apart’ because they ‘loved each other too much.’ You know what I mean? It’s all we’re hearing on the airwaves: How much they loved each other.

RUSH: Yeah.

CALLER: Even Diane Sawyer yesterday showed them kissing and hugging at that event.

RUSH: Yeah, I remember that, at the Democrat convention out there —

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: — in Los Angeles.

CALLER: But I do think it’s an agreement between the two of them. It’s kind of sad to see that happening. But I agree with you.

RUSH: Well, it is. I mean people have been married 40 years, it is kind of sad to see the break-up, ’cause, you know, it doesn’t make sense.

CALLER: The key word, Rush, is money. Whichever way it goes. I think it’s to protect his fortune somehow.

RUSH: Or… Well, yeah. That’s not exactly my theory. You said you were calling to agree with my theory.

CALLER: Yeah. Well, it’s something to do with money. That’s all I know.

RUSH: Well, my theory — I don’t need to go through it again but my theory — basically was if you’re going to get divorced after 40 years, it can’t all have been hunky-dory but you hang in there for various reasons. The kids…

CALLER: Yeah. I would hate to think it’s an affair, I really would.

RUSH: Yeah, that’s just… That’s the stuff of nightmares. That wouldn’t compute. I totally agree.