ASHINGTON - Forgetting a birthday card for Hamed Karoui. Meeting Ion Sturdza through a mutual friend, Lennart Meri.
It was all a bit of smarty-pants bravura by Al Gore, as the vice president put on a deadpan parody of the foreign policy pop quiz that tripped up Republican rival George W. Bush last week.
Gore, who issued a stern condemnation of Bush right after he failed to name the leaders of four foreign ''hot spots,'' lightened up yesterday when he was asked about the Texas governor on the syndicated radio show ''Imus in the Morning,'' which also airs on MSNBC.
''The other day I was talking to Utkir Sultanov - you know, the prime minister of Uzbekistan? And he asked me, `Did you send a birthday card to Hamed?' That's of course Hamed Karoui, the prime minister of Tunisia,'' Gore told a chuckling Don Imus.
''I thought, `God I forgot,''' continued the Democratic presidential candidate.
''I had just been talking about him with Ion Sturdza, the prime minister of Moldova. We're old friends. We actually met through a mutual friend, Lennart Meri, the president of Estonia of course.''
But seriously, Gore added, he didn't necessarily fault Bush, whom Gore hopes to meet in next year's general election, for coming up blank on the names of foreign leaders: ''I sympathize with those who say that that's not really a fair test.''
More disturbing, Gore said, was Bush's comment in the Nov. 3 televised interview that Gen. Pervaiz Musharraf, who seized power in Pakistan in a coup, ''is going to bring stability to the country and I think that's good news for the subcontinent.''
''I think it is troubling that (Bush) didn't know it's important to stand up for democracy and that a military coup overthrowing democracy is not good news,'' Gore said.
