In the spirit of the season, and in the hope of a fresh start in the New Year-with malice toward none, with charity for all-I hereby purge myself of various vexations of the old year. Liberal Claptrap

• The Clintonization of Al Gore, who increasingly apes his boss in fictionalizing his life story and mangling the truth for political gain.

Gore-self-described inspiration for the novel Love Story, discoverer of Love Canal, co-creator of the Internet, and author of the earned income tax credit-has shifted from anointing Clinton "one of our greatest Presidents" to calling his conduct "inexcusable," to acting as if he barely knows the man, to re-embracing him at fund-raisers. Worse, Gore has systematically distorted Bill Bradley’s record and proposals. Example No. 1: Slamming Bradley’s cautious past support of experimental tuition vouchers as 18 years of votes to "siphon funds from public schools to private ones." Example No. 2: Warning both that Bradley’s health care proposal is a threat to leave "African-Americans and Latinos out in the cold" (because it would supplant Medicaid) and that it costs too much (because it seeks to cover so many who are now uninsured). The latter warning would ring truer had Gore not championed Hillary Rodham Clinton’s far more costly, far more grandiose plan in 1993.