NEWS FLASH: Al Gore will be speaking tonight at the Dem Convention.

Nobody seems to care . . . but the occasion provides all the excuse I need to move this lovely photo back up to the top of the blog.

Reports are that the Dems are under strict orders to tone down the Bush-bashing:

Democrats are scrambling to tamp down former Vice President Al Gore and firebrand Howard Dean before they step to the convention podium, worried they may embarrass John Kerry with red-meat anger and excessive Bush bashing.

The Democratic National Convention and Kerry campaign staffs are working feverishly to rewrite, polish and tone down speeches submitted in advance of today's convention opening bell.

. . . .

Attention - and fear - is mostly focused on Gore, who kicks off the convention with a primetime speech tonight but has rankled some party leaders with his recent conversion to throaty, vicious attacks on Bush.

Gore rankled Kerry when he endorsed then-front-running Dean early in the primary season. Gore, who remains bitter after losing the hotly contested, controversial 2000 presidential race, is one of Bush's harshest critics.

. . . .

For speakers, the memo went out - literally - weeks ago. Kerry convention organizer Jack Corrigan wrote speakers a three-page memo outlining the "clear message" Kerry wanted to send from the convention.

All drafts were submitted for review, changed and rewritten with the no-negative rules heavily enforced. Among the guidance offered: "Criticism of Bush is allowed, but only as a subtle or indirect dig when comparing Kerry's vision to Bush's record. Red meat won't be served at this convention."

How disappointing. I was so much looking forward to watching a Michael Moore-style hate-fest. What's the point of tuning in if nobody is going to compare Dubya to a chimp, or at least call him a shrub?

Yes, Kerry might be embarrassed by a "redmeat" convention, but not exactly for the reasons the Dem spinners suggest. The real reason for reining in Gore's recent penchant for over-the-top rhetoric is so that Kerry's vapidities won't seem all the more somnambulistic by comparison. The best way to prevent the country from noticing on day four that John Kerry talks and thinks like one of the undead is to bore their brains into lukewarm slush on days one, two, and three. Even Bill Clinton's speech will probably turn out to be nothing more than a slow, dull, self-indulgent stroll down mammary . . . I mean . . . memory lane.

So instead of a Michael Moore-style hate-fest, it looks like the Dem's will give us a John Kerry-style bore-fest. Either way, one of Al Gore's personalities could fit the bill.

[UPDATE] It looks like Gore got the memo. Tonight in Boston it was boring Gore, not fiery Gore. His heart didn't seem to be in it. (Gore used to be able to put his heart into being boring.) Nothing like his nutty, angry MoveOn performance a couple of months ago. When he tried to fake having sense of humor about Florida 2000, it came across maudlin.

Thank God for the electoral college.