As we count down the hours until the pending defeat of Al Gore, we’ve come to a startling revelation.

We haven’t seen anyone acting this desperate since Bill Clinton bombed "the aspirin factory."

One poll after another has been solidifying Gore’s firm hold on the number two spot in what is basically a two-man race.

This week, the Gore machine, official or unofficial, began pulling out all the stops, apparently leaking nasty rumors to such despised conservative alternative media outlets as the Internet’s "Drudge Report."

Drudge reported a behind the scenes whisper campaign questioning the sexual preferences of pivotal third-party candidate Ralph Nader. While Nader has been averaging only two to five percent in most recent polls, the liberal Green Party candidate is expected to hurt Gore substantially at the polls, siphoning traditional Democratic votes and possibly delivering key swing states to George W. Bush.

Whether Nader, now in his ‘60s and never married, is sexually straight is really not the issue here. The fact that forces allied with Gore were allegedly involved with spreading the rumors is, well, rather queer…given the fact that both Gore and Nader are seeking the votes and approval of homosexuals.

You don’t win friends or influence people by accusing them in private of activities you publicly condone. And you might end up with a backlash that costs you votes, when all is said and done.

As if the Nader "gay" rumors were not bad enough, the heavy hand of a "hard-up" candidate is also obvious in the last minute revelations of a 24-year-old DUI conviction pinned to the rap sheet of Republican standard-bearer George W. Bush.

Nevermind the fact that "W" admitted the mistake and claims he has not taken a drink in 14 years. The shadow forces behind Al Gore hope that voters prefer a candidate who may have engaged in treason over someone who had a few too many beers in 1976.

Even as they attempt to stoke voters’ long-term memories of "W’s" ancient moral lapse, they hope to induce amnesia over Gore’s recent shattering of federal laws, broken when he ignored his responsibility to tell Congress about secret Russian arms deals with terrorist nation, Iran.

Gore should have blown the whistle when he discovered Russia was sending the Ayatollah state-of-the-art Russian Kilo class submarines and advanced wake-following torpedoes that could close down the Straits of Hormuz and jeopardize our oil supply. He also failed to mention he knew of Russia’s plan to sell Iran a nuclear reactor, which could be used to manufacture weapons grade plutonium.

Gore’s adherence to the law could have resulted in US penalties against the government of his good friend and partner-in-crime, former Russian Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin.

Instead, the two struck an illegal "understanding" that US law should be ignored. Penalties and the US Congress be damned. Al Gore was above the law that he swore to uphold and faithfully administer.

Could it be that Vice-President Al Gore is worried that private-citizen Al Gore might lose his "law-exempt" status, next January?

That could make any potential felon…a very desperate man.

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