Terrible Tony - Tony Coelho, VP Al Gore's presidential campaign manager

National Review, June 14, 1999 by Jay Nordlinger

So the Al & Tony Show it will be. Gore and Coelho, more than people yet realize, are birds of a feather. Each takes no prisoners and would do almost anything for the cause. Coelho will soon be one of the media's favorite dispensers of soundbites, and those bites will be severe. In the opinion of an old Coelho rival, "Gore, for all his vitriol and drive, is not in the same league as Tony in terms of tough singlemindedness." In 1995, the vice president cried, "The Republican leadership is conducting a jihad against the environment in the most right-wing, extremist agenda we have seen in America in this century." Coelho speaks that same language, only more fluently, with even greater abandon.

Moreover, as Chris Matthews observes, "Tony is still hungry. And it's not often that you find someone who is both experienced and hungry, someone who is comfortably off yet still raring to go out and be gladitorial. We almost never have second acts in our politics. These guys make their names in Washington, then go off and make money. They don't come back."

Tony C., though, is back. In a big way.