TOM MAGUIRE ON the Al Gore scandal and DNA evidence. Plus this: “If Dick Cheney were ever accused of something similar, we would hear nothing else. Well, the rest of you would – I would have my fingers in my ears.”

UPDATE: Reader Martin Shoemaker writes:

As much it amuses me to see Vice President Gore get his time in the hot seat, I think commentators need to remember:
* There’s no proof yet that DNA evidence exists.
* If DNA exists, there’s no proof yet that it’s Vice President Gore’s.
* If the DNA is Vice President Gore’s, that proves sexual contact. It doesn’t prove unwanted sexual contact, and it certainly doesn’t prove unlawful sexual contact

DNA or no DNA, this case will still turn on he said/she said. At most, the DNA would weaken his case if he denied that anything sexual at all happened. And you’ll note, he and his attorneys have issued no such denial.

All the cards are in Vice President Gore’s hands at this point. If there’s no DNA, or if the tests come back negative, he can say not a word. This flap will blow over, and he’ll recover his image just a little bit by staying out of the fray. If the tests come back positive, he’ll admit that in the midst of a troubled marriage, he may have read too much into a massage, perhaps due to alcohol; but he’ll deny it was more than that, and there will be no evidence. No prosecutor would dare take that to court.

This is theater, nothing more.

Well, as a great man once said, have a sno-cone and enjoy the show. ‘Cause it’s all bozos on this bus.