Gore entered the room with wife Tipper clutching his hand and cowboy boots
gripping his feet. His face was puffier, his body thicker and his hair grayer,
but he retained his inner wonk. "The concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere up
here on Capitol Hill," he announced, "is already 383 parts per million."

He also displayed the passion that made his documentary a hit in Hollywood.
"What we're facing now is a crisis that is by far the most serious that we've
ever faced," he declared. His eyes narrowing to slits, he proposed a series of
questions future generations might ask about the current inaction on greenhouse
gases. "What in God's name were they doing?" he asked. "What was wrong with
them? Were they too blinded and numbed by the busyness of political life or
daily life to take a deep breath and look at the reality of what we're
facing?"

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) called Gore a "prophet" -- and his Democratic
colleagues treated him as such. Gore got a hearty ovation when he visited the
House floor during a lunchtime vote.

Republicans found all the fuss rather distasteful. A sour Dennis Hastert
(Ill.), the former House speaker, called him "a personality and now a movie
star."

"Rin Tin Tin was a movie star," Gore demurred. "I just have a slide
show."

Barton informed Gore that some of his ideas "are just flawed." Under Gore's
plan, Barton said, "we can have no new industry, no new cars and trucks on the
streets, and apparently no new people."

But this was no match for Gore. "The planet has a fever," he lectured
Barton. "If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you
need to intervene here, you don't say, 'Well, I read a science fiction novel
that tells me it's not a problem.' If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate
that the baby is flame-retardant. You take action."

The audience laughed. Barton started reading the newspaper, then discovered
he wasn't getting much support even from his own side. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.)
admitted he paid to see "An Inconvenient Truth." Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.),
implicitly rebuking flat-Earth colleagues, said: "It's possible to be a
conservative without appearing to be an idiot." Barton flashed a grin of
annoyance.

Gore, given ample time to rebut Inhofe, had no shortage of material. "One
of the leading scientific experts said the consensus supporting this view on
global warming is as strong as anything in science -- with the possible
exception of gravity," he said.

The audience laughed. Boxer smiled. Inhofe did not. He left the show
early.

Evening was approaching when the ordeal ended and the movie star turned to
the committee chairman, Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). "You don't give out any kind
of statue or anything?" he inquired.