It's days like today that you've got to be thankful for the utter incompetence of Florida voters. Had more of them been able to actually cast the vote they meant to cast for Vice President Al Gore, we would've had this nutcase in charge of our response to terrorism.

Al Gore told a mainly Saudi audience on Sunday that the U.S. government committed "terrible abuses" against Arabs after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and that most Americans did not support such treatment.

Gore said Arabs had been "indiscriminately rounded up" and held in "unforgivable" conditions. The former vice president said the Bush administration was playing into al-Qaida's hands by routinely blocking Saudi visa applications.

"The thoughtless way in which visas are now handled, that is a mistake," Gore said during the Jiddah Economic Forum. "The worst thing we can possibly do is to cut off the channels of friendship and mutual understanding between Saudi Arabia and the United States."

Gore told the largely Saudi audience, many of them educated at U.S. universities, that Arabs in the United States had been "indiscriminately rounded up, often on minor charges of overstaying a visa or not having a green card in proper order, and held in conditions that were just unforgivable."

"Unfortunately there have been terrible abuses and it's wrong," Gore said. "I do want you to know that it does not represent the desires or wishes or feelings of the majority of the citizens of my country."

Let's just forget, for a moment, the scene of a former vice president of the United States slandering his own country. Grassroots Democrats (DailyKos, Atrios and the like) have been making noises in recent weeks about another Gore run for president. Now we have candidate Gore advocating a much looser immigration and visa policy for a country that exports the ultraviolent Wahabbi Islam strain and provided 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers. He complains that we throw Saudis in jail (without mentioning that we generally just ship them back to Saudi Arabia the first chance we get) for overstaying their visa, when that's exactly what many of the Sept. 11 hijackers had done.

Democrats want to put this man in charge of National Security? I wouldn't trust him to protect the last jelly donut on the pastry tray, let alone the American people.

And then there's the slander. I've been inside federal prisons, they're not pleasant places, but Al Gore's "abuses" are not only few and far between, but also much less outrageous than normal operating procedure for his hosts. Remember, he's talking to the Saudis, and I'd take 20 years in an American prison rather than a month in a Saudi prison.

And you've got to be a mental contortionist to figure out how "the Bush administration was playing into al-Qaida's hands by routinely blocking Saudi visa applications." Seriously, if we don't let Saudi terrorists into the United States the terrorists will have won?
The man is completely unhinged. He has betrayed the United States. He has confirmed our fears regarding his incompetence.

The sad thing is that this probably won't get the mainstream media play it deserves. No, instead the media is going ape over Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident.

I used to think that Al Gore's mental breakdown was merely something to provide blogfodder for myself and others on the right, but going to Saudi Arabia and attempting to pour more fuel on a smoldering fire is a whole new level of crazy. Gore is dangerous, and the media should publicize and decry his idiocy.

Other commentary and observations on the Gore meltdown:

• Michelle Malkin
• Instapundit
• Tigerhawk
• Ankle-biting pundits
• Powerline