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To quote then-presidential candidate John Ashcroft (who had a guy named Jack Oliver raising money for him), The Note always strives to be at its highest and best, not its lowest and least.

Some of you hate it when we write about Note process; some of you seem to consider those the only parts worth reading.

In any event, we don't mean to tease, but we are going back to the fishing hole for a bit starting today. We'll leave you with some parting words, and then make another temporary exit. The timing of our return to full-bore daily production is still TBD, but won't be too far off (but we do have an elaborate Secret Santa thing going on here, and, well, doing that properly takes time).

We will tip you off in advance when we plan to return.

One thing we want to leave you with to remember us by is another excerpt from Barbara Walters interview with Al Gore and family, which airs tonight on 20/20 at 10:00 p.m. ET/9:00 p.m. CT (check your local listings).

The following exchanges, while sure to interest Note readers and historians, actually won't be part of tonight's 20/20 broadcast, so you can read them only here and now:

WALTERS: I'm not sure that people realize that while you were in the residence of the Vice President [during the Florida recount] there were crowds of people outside screaming at you. What was that all about?

AL GORE: Well, this was the Republican response to what was happening during that 36-day period, and they organized busloads of people that came and stood outside the house all day and all night screaming at the top of their lungs.

WALTERS: What, "Get out!"?

TIPPER GORE: Things like that, yes, and, and sometimes … things that we don't want to say on your program, and, some people saw that they were buses from "churches," but it was organized. The one thing that, that they did mainly was reach the bedrooms of our children, and Albert was still in school locally, and trying to study, so we rearranged, you know, they … kids moved to a different part of the house, and I was trying to think of a way that we could kind of laugh about this since obviously it was out of our control, there wasn't anything anybody could do so I got all the boom boxes in the house and … I remember sort of what the government did with Noriega … I thought we'd try that, and I aimed them at, toward, you know, where the crowd …

WALTERS: The crowd?

TIPPER GORE: … And I put nature sounds on and turned it all the way up. And at least the kids laughed.

AL GORE: There were a few, more than a few who supported us and were offended by the organized chanting round the clock who came out on the other street corner during the day to express their support with signs, and … You know, emotions were running high throughout the country and it was just an unprecedented time.

KARENNA GORE: Well, when we were in the Vice President's house during the recount, it was it was very intense. And one of the things I remember is that there was a … an organized effort by, I don't know whether it was the RNC or it was … it was right-wing groups, it was definitely Bush-campaign-oriented effort to bus in people to have a sort of siege at the Vice President's house, and, so, they were all lining there, screaming, and it was kind of an assortment of groups. I mean, some of them were anti, um, were anti-abortion groups, and some of them were pro-gun groups, and some of them … they all had their different signs. But they were all screaming, "Get out of Cheney's house," the whole time. And I just remember being there next to my dad, because I went for a run, and I ran back through them, and I was very upset when I came into the house. And my whole attitude was, like, "We've got to fight back harder. And where are our crowds?" And my dad, I'll never forget his response. He said, "We have to do what's best for the country, and it is not good for the country to have this kind of divisiveness. And he was on the phone, really calling off the dogs. There were people who wanted to fan the … the flames of the racial issue and have real unrest. And he was on the phone asking them not to, because of what was best for the country not because of what was best for him politically. And that's really who he is.

WALTERS: Do you remember the crowds outside screaming?

KRISTEN GORE: The crowds that were screaming outside our house, you know, "Get out of Cheney's house." And other things … of that nature, were really upsetting. It was difficult … It was just very … upsetting that someone would … yell those things at us. It felt … we felt sort of like … trapped in this … you know, little house with all these people yelling mean things. It's no fun. You know, whether you're a child of the person who they're directed at, or anyone else. It … it wasn't a good situation.

WALTERS: Were you scared?

KRISTEN GORE: I was scared that the truth was not going to come out. That's what I was.

After 20/20 and a break for your local news, you can catch Gore on Letterman.

Now, for just SOME of the stuff in the papers, with no pretense at comprehensivity (as we say here):

Dan Balz front-pages a good taste of the 20/20 interview and Gore's interview to be published in the Washington Post Magazine. LINK

Maynard Jackson is one person who wants Terry McAuliffe to explain what happened on November 5. LINK

The Raleigh News & Observer's Wagner speculates on the possibility that Senator John Edwards may lose his Judiciary Committee seat in the GOP-run Senate — being the panel's juniorest member — and thus one of his best platforms. LINK

Man, are those politics-obsessed Boston papers going to cover the heck out of the Democratic convention, or what? And which of the two major dailies (or will it be the Phoenix?) will get over the initial blast of hype first and remember to start filing detailed public records requests?

More Boston 2004 coverage: LINK LINK LINK LINK

Senator John Kerry tests out his stump speech, it seems, in a loooong Boston Phoenix op-ed that hits on Iraq, the Bush tax cut, class size, and the environment, the link for which we confess we could not find on the site.

Meanwhile, outside the wires, we can't find any coverage of Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's big speech in DC last night, which touched on HIS pet issues.

On this week's "Here's the Point," the New Republic's fashionable editor, Peter Beinart, talks about how Europe views George W. Bush, what a radio show that is "more Janet Jackson than Michael Jackson" means, and Al Gore and single-payer. Link to it here, starting Sunday: LINK

And, the Washington Post reports on the possibility that President Bush will push for Social Security reform next year: "According to sources in the administration, Congress and conservative interest groups, White House officials have concluded from voters' choices that the changes — which would for the first time tie a portion of the nation's retirement system to stock market investments — can be a winning issue. Bush aides have compiled a PowerPoint presentation for advocates and lawmakers showing that several GOP candidates who emphasized Social Security in their campaigns did 'best of all,' as an administration official put it." LINK

"Several prominent outside advocates of such accounts — who have been in contact with the White House in recent days — said they believe that Bush's economic and political advisers, including senior adviser Karl Rove, favored swift legislation. On the other hand, the sources said, White House lobbyists are more hesitant to ask for legislation right away. That's because some senior Republicans believe the timing is poor, most Democrats are resistant, and the administration's ideological allies have not made clear how high Social Security ranks among their goals now that the GOP is taking control of both chambers of Congress."