The American Spectator

FILTHY RICH br> The decision by former Vice President Al Gore to cancel a trip to Taiwan to lecture the people there about global warming may have less to do with the cost of hot air on the environment and more to do with the value Gore places on his own hot air. /p>

“It had far less to do with any political considerations, and everything to do with money,” says a former Gore staffer.

According to the former Gore aide, the Democratic Progressive Party, which was attempting to get Gore to travel to Taiwan, was balking at the VIP treatment Gore was demanding via his speakers bureau, the Harry Walker Agency. Gore was demanding first class travel and accommodations for himself, as well as first class accommodations for his entourage.

“It’s surprising that he’d be so focused on the money,” says a staffer for presidential candidate John Edwards. “When you hold tens of millions of stock options from Google and are already one of the wealthiest potential presidential candidates out there, who needs to worry about travel expenses?”

Democrat competitors are monitoring Gore’s financial portfolio, in part, because they believe that should he decide to run, Gore would use profits from his Google stock as seed money for a presidential campaign. Gore has been on an intensive weight loss regimen in the past six months, and has bragged to friends that he has lost close to 40 pounds.

p> THE SKY’S THE LIMIT br> Word is that former Clinton State Department spokesman and current Christiane Amanpour mate Jamie Rubin