A lot has happened since the 2000 presidential race, when two Senate Democrats headed their party’s ticket in a losing campaign for the White House.

Al Gore, the former vice president and 2000 Democratic presidential nominee, went on to win a Nobel Peace Prize, an Oscar and a Grammy after his documentary on climate change.

His running mate, Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, left the Democratic party to become an independent, which put him in a position of power player in the Senate. And now he’s a pivotal force as the congressional healthcare debate inches toward resolution.

Lieberman says he’ll join Republicans and block a final vote on a healthcare reform bill if it includes the public option.

Despite their political split, Gore told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Tuesday that he and his former running mate are still pals.

Any regrets about the “turbo boost” you gave to Lieberman’s career by picking him as your running mate — given that he’s changed his political affiliation and his current stance on healthcare? Maddow asked .

“The short answer is ‘No.’ We were very close friends in the Senate. We’re still friends,” Gore responded before proceeding on to the long answer.

“He was right and forceful on many of the issues that I felt were central, including global warming. He was one of the leaders on that issue. Women’s rights. On a whole range of issues,” Gore said. “I disagree with him on a lot of the issues that have become more prominent since then,” he added.

“But I would urge people to wait until the denouement of this healthcare debate to see where it falls out because I do believe that (Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid is going to be successful in passing it (healthcare reform) fairly soon.”

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Photo Credit:Reuters/Win McNamee (Gore, Lieberman on a call with party leaders Nov. 27, 2000)

Al Gore — who sometimes jokes that he “used to be the next president of the United States” — heads for Capitol Hill to testify about the fight against climate change. The former vice president and star of the Oscar-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” is slated to go before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where he’ll discuss the latest legislation to curb the greenhouse gases that spur global warming.

Gore shares the spotlight with former Senator John Warner, the Virginia Republican who pushed a bill to cut greenhouse gas emissions in 2008, his last year in Congress.

It’s been an environmentally-friendly week in Washington, with Earth Day on Wednesday prompting almost every U.S. agency to go green, starting with the Environmental Protection Agency. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson headed for the Hill to urge passage of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, the climate bill working its way through the House of Representatives. A similar bill failed last year, but that was then. Supporters hope that with a new administration which has been clear on its commitment to curb climate warming emissions, this kind of law has a better chance.

The green spree continues next week, when 17 of the countries that emit the most greenhouse gases — including the United States — gather at the State Department on Monday and Tuesday. But whatever happens in Foggy Bottom, there will still be plenty of attention focused on Congress. Todd Stern, the top U.S. climate diplomat, says domestic legislation is the key to successfully negotiating a global climate pact.

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Photo credit: REUTERS/Larry Downing (Al Gore before his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, January 28, 2009)

Tis the season to be, er, generous with taxpayers’ money.

The White House and Democrats in Congress are busy putting the finishing touches to a whopping $15 billion Christmas present for the U.S. auto industry. The two sides have been haggling for several days over the terms of the bailout to rescue the “Big Three” Detroit car manufacturers but are now reported to be close to agreement.

 House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi told NBC’s “Today” breakfast television show that if Congress approved the agreement a “car czar” charged with restructuring the industry could be appointed as soon as this week. She said she favored former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker for the post although he may already have his hands full — President-elect Barack Obama has named him as his senior adviser on jolting the economy out of recession.

 Obama has been critical of the Bush administration’s efforts to tackle the mortgage foreclosure crisis that has seen hundreds of thousands of Americans lose their homes. The issue will be under the spotlight at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT), when the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee holds a hearing on the role of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the financial crisis.

 More gloomy housing data may come from the National Association of Realtors, which issues its Pending Home Sales Index for October and monthly Housing Forecast at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT).

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice travels to Panama City on Tuesday for a one-day meeting of foreign and commerce ministers that have negotiated free-trade deals with the United States. It will be attended by ministers from Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama and Peru.

 But the political meeting likely to grab the most media attention on Tuesday will be taking place in Chicago, where Obama is due to meet Nobel laureate and former Vice President Al Gore to discuss energy and climate change.

Obama and Gore, who has indicated he is not interested in a position of climate “czar” or any cabinet post, will talk about how energy and climate policies can stimulate the economy and create jobs, a statement from Obama’s office said.

WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush, who said in March he would find ample time to campaign for Republican White House contender John McCain, is going to spend the last weekend of the 2008 race at, well, Camp David.

Bush has record low job approval ratings due to the prolonged wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the sour economy. He will leave Friday for the U.S. presidential retreat in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland and will remain secluded until Sunday, according to his public schedule released late Tuesday evening.

“The president is pretty focused on the activities that we have here, especially getting this economy back in order,” said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. “As we’ve said for a while, the president was going to be focusing on this.”

When the economic crisis unfolded and Hurricane Gustav hit the Gulf Coast, Bush canceled plans to attend several fundraisers around the country and sometimes sent surrogates in his place, including his wife Laura Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

And as rival White House contender Democrat Barack Obama sought to paint McCain as an extension of the current president, McCain went to great lengths to distance himself from Bush.

During the campaign, McCain met three times publicly with Bush: once when he clinched the Republican nomination at the White House, a brief appearance at the Phoenix airport after a closed-door fundraiser they attended together, and then last month at the White House during a meeting on the financial bailout package.

McCain also last week blasted Bush in an interview with the Washington Times newspaper, saying “We just let things get completely out of hand.”

During the 2000 election, then-President Bill Clinton was largely cast aside by the Democratic hopeful Al Gore who sought to distance himself from the sex scandal that nearly took Clinton down. Instead Clinton spent much of his time working to elect his wife to the U.S. Senate.

So as the final weekend before election day approaches and McCain trails in most polls (narrowly in some), Bush will spend it the sidelines.

“He’s going to focus on being with Mrs. Bush and others this weekend at Camp David,” Perino said.

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- Photo credit: White House (Bush fills out his election ballot)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Democrat Barack Obama wasn’t quite ready to call it a night after his debate on Tuesday night with Republican John McCain.

Obama stopped by the home Al and Tipper Gore in Belle Meade, just outside of Nashville, where the former vice president and his wife were holding a fundraiser on his behalf.

The soiree raised more than $900,000 for Obama’s campaign coffers.

Gore said he didn’t want to take anything for granted but introduced Obama as the “next president of the United States.”

Obama, who was joined by his wife Michelle, praised Gore’s efforts to fight global warming and said he valued the former vice president’s advice. But he kept his remarks short and passed up the chance to offer some post-debate spin.

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Photo credit: Reuters / Jason Reed 

In the annals of inventor-lawmakers, Republican presidential candidate John McCain may rank even higher than Al Gore.
 
Gore famously said in 1999 as he was preparing to launch his presidential bid that he helped create the Internet while he was a member of the Senate.
 
He was roundly ridiculed for the comment, which rumor and repetition quickly converted into an urban myth that Gore claimed to be the inventor of the Internet.

McCain evidently has been busy in the Senate too. Even though he doesn’t use computers or e-mail, the Arizona senator helped create the BlackBerry. So says one of his economic advisers, Douglas Holt-Eakin.
 
“You’re looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create,” Holtz-Eakin told reporters while brandishing a BlackBerry wireless e-mail device during a briefing in Miami.
 
Holtz-Eakin’s remarks came as he was defending McCain’s knowledge of the economy while stock markets reeled from the financial crisis.
 
Early in the campaign, McCain said his economic understanding wasn’t all that great. He’s been trying to claw back that statement ever since.
 
Holtz-Eakin cited McCain’s work on the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees telecommunications and the senator chaired for a time, as evidence of his economic experience. Then followed the BlackBerry proclamation.
 
The Obama campaign, aware of the ridicule Gore suffered over the Internet, was quick to try to tar McCain with the BlackBerry.
 
“If John McCain hadn’t said that ‘the fundamentals of our economy are strong’ on the day of one of our nation’s worst financial crises, the claim that he invented the BlackBerry would have been the most preposterous thing said all week,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton. 
 
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Photo credit: Reuters/Robert LeSieur (McCain in New Hampshire Sept. 14)

FLINT, Mich.  - Former Vice President Al Gore, a highly respected figure in the U.S. Democratic party, was set on Monday to appear at a Detroit rally with presidential candidate Barack Obama, where he will pledge to do all he can to help Obama win the White House.

“Over the past 18 months, Barack Obama has united a movement. He knows change does not come from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or Capitol Hill. It begins when people stand up and take action,” Gore said in a letter to his supporters, asking them to help him raise money for Obama.

“From now through Election Day, I intend to do whatever I can to make sure (Obama) is elected president of the United States,” Gore said in the letter, which was made available to reporters by the Obama campaign.

The letter marked the first time that Gore has said publicly he was supporting Obama. 

The former vice president, who served with former President Bill Clinton, remained neutral as Clinton’s wife, Hillary Clinton, and Obama battled for the Democratic nomination. 

Since losing his own bid for the White House to President George W. Bush amid the disputed Florida voting in 2000, Gore has become a hero to many in his party. He has been a vocal advocate of actions to combat global warming and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in that area.

Obama said in April that he consulted regularly with Gore and also said he would strongly consider inviting the former vice president to serve in his administration should he win the White House.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Denis Balibouse  (Al Gore at news conference in Geneva, March 11, 2008)