WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, a co-chairman of presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain's campaign, said Friday he was leaving the campaign.

Gramm, R-Texas, came in for a wave of criticism this month when he told an interviewer the United States was in a "mental recession" and said America had "sort of become a nation of whiners."

McCain publicly disassociated himself from Gramm's comment and the campaign said Gramm would step aside from his advisory role -- but syndicated columnist Robert Novak reported Friday that Gramm had apologized to McCain for the episode and that Gramm would remain with the campaign as an adviser and as a surrogate for the candidate.

Gramm issued a statement late Friday saying he was leaving the campaign, The Hill reported.

"It is clear to me that Democrats want to attack me rather than debate Sen. McCain on important economic issues facing the country," Gramm said. "That kind of distraction hurts not only Sen. McCain's ability to present concrete programs to deal with the country's problems, it hurts the country."

Obama to speak at Berlin's victory statue

BERLIN, July 18 (UPI) -- Presumptive Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama is to speak at the Victory Column in Berlin next week, not the Brandenburg Gate.

The gate is one of the German capital's best-known symbols. President John Kennedy visited the gate in 1963, and Ronald Reagan spoke there when he urged "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."

Chancellor Angela Merkel had suggested that Obama should not give what amounts to a campaign speech at the gate, Deutsche Welle reported.

The 200-foot-high column, carrying a statue of the Roman goddess of Victory, is more than a mile from the gate on the major route from the gate to the western part of the city.

Thousands of people are expected to come to hear Obama. A recent poll showed that 72 percent of Germans would vote for him if they could.

Berlin is to be Obama's final stop on a tour that includes Iraq and Afghanistan.

Pickens would OK Gore as 'energy czar'

WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens says if Barack Obama is elected president, "I think I would be for Al Gore for energy czar."

Pickens, in an interview aired Friday on National Journal On Air, was speaking about his campaign to promote a national move to domestic energy sources, switching from gasoline to natural gas for vehicles and replacing gas-burning power plants with a variety of sources, including coal, solar, wind and nuclear power.

"The problem first: We are paying now $700 billion a year for foreign oil," he said. "We're going to break the country, is what's going to happen."

Pickens said there is one natural resource in America that can replace foreign oil -- natural gas. He said he spoke last week with former Vice President Al Gore, who he said "is not big on natural gas."

"He wants to go to the electric car, and I think you have to bridge to the electric car, and natural gas is ready to go now."

As to whether Gore should be energy czar if presumptive Democratic nominee Obama wins in November, Pickens said, "In that case, I think I would be for Al Gore for energy czar."

Poll: 75 percent OK gays in U.S. military

WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- Seventy-five percent of Americans say gays and lesbians should be permitted to serve in the U.S. military, a Washington Post-ABC News poll indicated.

That figure is up from 62 percent in 2001 and 44 percent in 1993 -- when the administration of former President Bill Clinton instituted "don't ask-don't tell," a policy that allows gays to enter the military but forbids them from disclosing their orientation or acting on it sexually.

Majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents all said gays should be permitted to serve openly, the Post said Friday.

The poll found 64 percent of Republicans approve of allowing gays to serve in the military. In 1993, only 32 percent said they should.

More than 80 percent of Democrats and more than 75 percent of independents said gays should be allowed to serve openly in the armed forces. Only 50 percent of military veterans agreed, the poll found, while 57 percent of white evangelical protestants said gays should be allowed to serve.

The telephone survey was conducted July 10-13, polling a national random national sample of 1,119 adults with a margin of error of 3 percent.