Inside, Nashville Councilman Morris Haddox, grinning broadly, shook hands with everyone within reach, then walked outside the courthouse to smoke a victory cigarette and tell a group of reporters how he felt about being acquitted of bribery.

Gore, a young investigative reporter for The Tennessean, didn't join his colleagues.

He left the courthouse that evening of May 31, 1974, with the feeling that journalism might not be for him after all.

The long-haired, sideburned 26-year-old reporter had uncovered what he thought was clear evidence that Haddox had taken a bribe in exchange for support of a zoning change. Gore had written the first stories outlining the case.

But through what Gore later called the "unusual power" of words and phrases used in the courtroom, Haddox went free. Gore decided shortly thereafter that he needed to know more about that power and enrolled at Vanderbilt Law School. He also began writing editorials instead of stories for The Tennessean.

"I felt that whatever gifts I have might better be pursued in another profession," he said years later.

In 1976 came the surprise word that Joe L. Evins was retiring after 30 years representing Tennessee's 4th Congressional District. Within days, Gore had quit law school and The Tennessean, and announced his intentions to run for the seat.

He won and has been in political office ever since.

If not for Haddox, would Gore be writing about the presidency instead of running for it? Or was it inevitable he would go into politics, having been groomed from childhood by his father, a U.S. senator who himself had sought the nation's highest office?

Gore's former colleagues at The Tennessean, Nashville's morning daily newspaper, say he had the talent and intensity to go far in journalism.

"I had thought from the outset he would end up working for The New York Times or The Washington Post, or maybe since he looked like Clark Kent, he would want to go to network TV," said John Seigenthaler, chairman emeritus of The Tennessean.

Seigenthaler hired Gore in 1971 after the young man's stint as an Army journalist in Vietnam. By 1973, he had worked his way up from writing obituaries to covering the city council, where he heard rumors of corruption.

Gore helped set up a sting operation with the district attorney general, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, his publisher and a Nashville developer who told Gore that Haddox had solicited a bribe from him.

Gore listened from his Volkswagen around the corner from Haddox's pharmacy on Jan. 19, 1974, as the councilman spent two hours talking to developer Gilbert Cohen, who was wearing a transmitter taped to his T-shirt.

Gore said he heard Haddox tell the developer it would take "a grand" to get the zoning variance to close an alley, which would allow the construction of a high-rise building.

Gore watched as Haddox accepted an envelope from the developer containing a $300 "down payment" the newspaper had provided.

And Gore testified before a grand jury.

The councilman was arrested and the next day The Tennessean had Gore's front-page story laying out the details of what had happened, accompanied by a series of photos showing Haddox taking the money. In early May, Gore testified in Haddox's first trial.

But Haddox said he had been entrapped, that the newspaper was trying to destroy the career of a black politician, and that he accepted the money because he was conducting an investigation of his own.

The jury split along racial lines and a mistrial was declared.

Asked for his reaction, Haddox told a reporter, "I don't know. Go see Albert Gore and get his reaction."

In Haddox's second trial, the judge ruled transcripts of the incriminating audiotaped conversation inadmissible and the tape itself was virtually incomprehensible. Jurors said afterward that prosecutors didn't even come close to proving their case.

Gore "was obviously deeply disappointed at the outcome," said Ken Jost, a former Tennessean reporter who covered the trials and later worked for Gore in Congress.

Gore has used the words "stunned" and "amazed" to describe his reaction.

But things certainly have changed over the past quarter century.

Gore now counts Haddox as a strong supporter. Haddox, who still runs his pharmacy and is back on the city council, displays Gore 2000 stickers in his window.

"I always thought he was a very intelligent, aggressive and decent person," Haddox said of the reporter-turned-politician.

He said he doesn't know whether his acquittal caused Gore to leave journalism.

"If that's the reason, then I guess I'm a very big fellow and he owes me a thank you," Haddox said with a laugh.