Washington ? Al Gore’s stiff jokes are gone now, replaced by recount jokes.

The cautious campaigner of 2000 is gone, too, replaced by a fire-breathing Bush-basher.

When Gore delivered his latest-in-a-series slam at the Republicans last week, faulting Vice President Dick Cheney for “sleazy and despicable” criticism of the Democrats, a White House spokesman dismissively responded: “Consider the source.”

Consider Al Gore.

Well, he used to be the vice president.

And, as he likes to say, he used to be the next president of the United States.

Now, he is Al Gore private citizen. Al Gore unleashed.

Speaking with a freedom and passion less frequently seen in his own political campaigns, Gore is happily making speeches, raking in money and generally raising hell for John Kerry and the Democratic Party these days. In his spare time, he’s also teaching at three universities and raising money for himself through various business ventures.

In recent weeks and months, as an uncensored voice for the Democratic cause, Gore has skewered President Bush’s team for moral cowardice, the “lowest sort of politics imaginable,” aligning itself with “digital brownshirts” who intimidate the press and political tactics as craven as those of Richard Nixon. Just to cite a few examples.

It’s red meat for loyal Democrats, to whom Gore is the embodiment of what is at stake Nov. 2.

“There’s a lot of emotion that’s wrapped up in the outcome of 2000, which I think he can use constructively in 2004,” said Democratic consultant Michael Feldman, a former Gore adviser.

Republicans, however, say Gore’s passion on the campaign path has reached an unhealthy fever pitch that could do Democrats more harm than good.

GOP strategist Keith Appell likens him to “some kind of cheerleader on acid.”

“Some of the things he has said have been outrageous, and he says them in this high-pitched scream,” Appell said. “I really don’t know what to call that.”

When Gore, in an interview with The New Yorker, compared Bush’s faith with “the same fundamentalist impulse that we see in Saudi Arabia” and elsewhere, the Bush campaign distributed a statement from GOP consultant Ralph Reed, a former leader of the Christian Coalition, calling the comments “reckless and irresponsible.”

Democrats welcome help

If Kerry’s advisers have any nervousness about Gore’s high-octane attacks, they’re not showing it in public.

“Gore will be a tremendous asset to us in a number of targeted battleground states, and we’re happy to have his help,” said David Morehouse, a senior Kerry adviser. As for Gore’s more outspoken criticisms, Morehouse added, “He’s a former vice president who’s entitled to say what he believes.”

Pollster Andy Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, said Gore was “emblematic of happier days” to many Democrats.

But Kohut cautioned that “swing voters tend to be moderate, and if he comes across as too over-the-top, there’s a risk.” The pollster added, though, “Certainly he’s not any more over-the-top than Dick Cheney.”