Jon is presumably making a joke and/or being ironic, but since this has come up twice in recent days on this listserv it might be worth pointing out that this is a standard right-wing talking point (as well as being untrue).
The progressive blogs have been typically out in front on documenting and countering the conservative push-back over the award. Think Progress for example comments on the spin that Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer tried to offer on the Sunday talks shows yesterday:
"On Fox News Sunday this morning, Weekly Standard editor William Kristol and conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer attacked former Vice President Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize win, calling him "anti-American" and derisively claiming that he got the award for "nothing" but "bloviating about global warming."
"Sarcastically calling Gore's win "deeply moving," Kristol disparaged Gore and the Nobel prize itself, saying "it's a prize given by bloviators to a bloviator":
KRISTOL: Friday, I felt a warm glow thinking that this man got the Nobel Peace Prize for bloviating about global warming. I mean, it's a prize given by bloviators to a bloviator for nothing. What did he - he was Vice President of the United States for eight years. I missed the Clinton administration's bold initiatives on global warming and carbon caps. Did they enforce the Kyoto Treaty? I don't think so. You know, so he gets the Nobel Peace Prize for talking."
"Claiming that the Nobel Peace Prize is "the Kentucky Derby of the world left," Krauthammer was even more shrill than Kristol, saying "Al Gore now joins the ranks of Yasser Arafat, the father of modern terrorism." He then claimed the award "has nothing to do with peace" and that "it gives it to people whose politics are either anti-American or anti-Bush, and that's why [Gore] won it."
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/14/kristol-krauthammer-gore/
To me, the Kristol/Krauthammer comments are much sadder than Gore ever was! (Arafat won it alongside Rabin and Peres and Kissinger, as Gerry noted). But they are "Serious" powerful men over here, quite unlike political bloggers!
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