http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/23/politics...&partner=GOOGLE

Gore, on Earth Day, Changes the Subject
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

Published: April 23, 2004

Thursday was Earth Day, so who better to address Senate Democrats than the man the first President Bush dubbed "Ozone Man": former Vice President Al Gore?

Mr. Gore has dedicated much of his political career to environmental issues and is the author of a book on the topic, "Earth in the Balance." Elsewhere in the country, President Bush took advantage of Earth Day to announce a new federal goal of expanding America's wetlands.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Senator John Kerry, renewed his attacks on Mr. Bush over soaring oil prices, speaking to an Earth Day crowd of thousands in Mr. Bush's home state of Texas.

But the former vice president, perhaps signaling that he is truly out of politics, came to the Capitol Thursday afternoon not to talk about Mother Earth, but rather about intelligence and, in particular, the President's Daily Brief.

The P.D.B., as it is called, is the clA*ified memo presented each morning to the president and vice president. It has been the subject of considerable discussion in Washington since Mr. Bush released the memo of August 6, 2001, which warned that Osama Bin Laden was determined to strike inside the United States. One person who attended the meeting said Mr. Gore told Democrats he thought President Bush, as "the consumer" of the P.D.B., should have done more to follow up.

"He said, `This is not meant to attack Bush, but having read the P.D.B. for eight years, the most important thing is the consumer of it,' " this person said, adding that Mr. Gore said, "If we had read that, we would have certainly asked for more information."

It is, of course, a sore point with some Democratic senators that Mr. Bush, and not Mr. Gore, was the one reading the memo, and some of them remain disappointed with the former vice president for the way he ran his 2000 presidential campaign.

But they were careful not to say so; most were mum on the visit, as was the former vice president himself. He slipped into the Capitol practically unnoticed, ate lunch with his fellow Democrats, and then slipped out the back door, evading reporters. "I'm not giving any interviews," he said.

As to Earth Day, intelligence reports from the session indicate the subject didn't come up. But Mr. Gore's lunch, one reliable source said, was appropriate to the occasion: a green salad.