Some people will no doubt object to this column. After all, you're not supposed to speak ill of the dead -- especially the recent dead. But with all the flowery tributes to Al Gore Sr. in the last few days, I figure somebody has to speak the truth about this man who, in his lifetime, collaborated with and profited handsomely from evil.

Vice President Al Gore eulogized his father Tuesday as a politician driven by "conscience" who never forgot his humble upbringing and always tried to help others.

"Dad, your whole life has been an inspiration,'' Gore said, his voice cracking slightly.

I believe Al Jr. when he says that. And it scares the hell out of me.

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To appreciate what I'm about to tell you with regard to Al Gore Sr., you first must familiarize yourself with a man by the name of Armand Hammer -- worth more than a few columns himself.

Hammer was a personal friend of V.I. Lenin. He was known as Lenin's "path" to America's financial resources -- in other words, the guy who would sell us the rope with which we would be hanged. Hammer was the first Western businessman to participate in KGB-controlled joint ventures in the Soviet Union. The son of Julius Hammer, a founder of the Socialist Labor Party and later the Communist Party USA who served time in Sing Sing for performing illegal abortions, Armand was called the "Capitalist Prince" by the KGB. Hammer dutifully served the Soviets for seven decades and became the first -- and only -- American capitalist to be awarded the Order of Lenin.

Edward J. Epstein's "Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer" is must reading for anyone who wants to understand how so-called "capitalists" like Hammer can serve as willing and able tools of revolutionary Marxists and global socialists.

Lenin told Stalin about Hammer: "This is a small path leading to the American 'business' world, and this path should be made use of in every way." To the Soviet Union in his day, Hammer was a figure with much in common with the contemporary spy-cum-billionaire Mochtar Riady -- doing the bidding of socialist tyrants -- and making a bundle in the process.

Hammer was part-time spy, part-time money-launderer, part-time industrialist -- but a full-time traitor to the United States of America.

But I digress. The story for today is how Hammer's corrupt, evil career was aided in numerous ways by Vice President Al Gore's Daddy, who was a partner in various Hammer enterprises for more than four decades. As Epstein documents in "Dossier," the elder Gore helped Hammer make connections with a series of U.S. presidents and used his influence to help Hammer's Occidental Petroleum company gain access to foreign political leaders. But, most importantly, it was Gore who helped stop the FBI from pursuing an investigation of the industrialist as a Soviet agent of influence.

It seems Al Gore Sr. knew something about "controlling legal authorities" and obstruction of justice himself. Like father, like son.

Conscience? Humble beginnings? When the elder Gore retired from the Senate, he received a $500,000-a-year job as head of Occidental's coal division. So, it would seem, the cleanest money in Al Gore's family tree came from tobacco. The really dirty, blood money came direct from Moscow for services rendered to Communist totalitarians and their pseudo-capitalist puppet, errand boys. Tell me about conscience, Al.

After the younger Gore was elected to the Senate in 1980, he continued a tradition begun by his father by inviting Hammer into the "senators only" section during President Reagan's inauguration.

Al Jr. has emulated his Dad in other ways, too. Today he serves as co-chairman of an Russian-U.S. commission intended to help the next generation of Armand Hammer-style "Capitalist Princes" develop contacts with KGB-dominated businesses.

In 1994, the vice president established U.S.-Russian Joint Commission on Economic and Technical Cooperation, better known as the Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission. The purpose of the commission is to help establish joint ventures in space exploration, science and technology, defense conversion, environmental initiatives, public health issues, agribusiness and economic development. The Russian side of this equation is littered with shadowy figures with one foot in the intelligence community and the other in mob-related activities.

Sound familiar? Like father, like son.