Expert: Criticism of Gore doesn't matter

NASHVILLE, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- Ex-vice president Al Gore, criticized for his large Nashville home, energy use and travel habits, can afford to just shake it off, a political expert says.

The head of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, Larry Sabato, said while critics have attacked the outspoken environmentalist for his apparently non-environmentally friendly lifestyle, such comments should have no effect on someone outside of the political limelight, The (Nashville) Tennessean reported Monday.

"Here's the good news for him," Sabato said. "It doesn't matter a whit. He's out of politics. He's won the Nobel Prize, the Academy Award and goodness knows what else ... . He's got the last laugh on anybody."

Gore, who won a Nobel Prize and Academy Award for his anti-global warming efforts with the movie "An Inconvenient Truth," has been criticized for owning a large home in Tennessee with high utility bills and for repeated jet travel.

The Tennessean said those critics, who argue the former U.S. official is not practicing what he preaches, are now focusing on Gore's purchase of a 100-foot houseboat.

The new criticisms come despite the fact the Bio-Solar One craft comes equipped with solar panels and runs on biodiesel fuel, the newspaper reported.