The American Spectator

p> COUNTING EVERY READER br> Al Gore is said by associates to be surprised that his newest books on family aren’t selling well. The pair of books co-written with wife Tipper Gore (one of them is a coffee-table book intended to serve as companion to the “heavier” tome) are apparently headed toward the remainder bin as bookstores move more popular and potential Christmas gift fare into the line of sight of customers. /p>

“We aren’t selling any,” says a sales associate for Borders Books in Bethesda, Maryland. “And we thought given that this is kind of a political book and that it’s by Gore that it would sell in this area.”

It hasn’t worked out that way. The audiences at Gore’s book signings have been skimpy, and worse, those that do come to hear him haven’t been buying the books. In San Francisco, Gore’s appearances were met by crowds of people apparently rounded up by his former Northern California presidential campaign staff. “We were invited to come and cheer him on,” says a former volunteer. “We were chanting, ‘Gore in 2004,’ and he loved it. But I wasn’t going to buy the book.”

The Gore books haven’t yet cracked the New York Times bestseller list after more than three weeks in stores, an indication that it won’t make the list. “They tried getting them [The Sunday New York Times Book Review] to list it as a book in the ‘Bear in Mind’ section, so at least it would make the page where the bestseller list is placed, but we couldn’t even get that,” says a former Gore aide. “It’s another indication the public isn’t buying Gore as a serious candidate in 2004.”

The Prowler won’t go so far. We see it as an indication that the American public is still in recovery from Earth in the Balance.

p> QUICK STARTERS br> What a cooperative group the Republicans in the Senate have become. This week, look for Senator-elect