Cuomo Calls on Gore

Labeling the Democratic voices from the presidential field "babble," prominent Democrat Mario Cuomo is calling on former Vice President Al Gore to enter the race for the party's nomination.

Cuomo's comments came one day before Gore was to deliver a speech at New York University on the Bush administration's handling of the U.S.-led war against Iraq and other national security issues.

Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean didn't take Cuomo's appeal to Gore too seriously.

"I don't know, Mario is having a little fun," Dean said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I think Al Gore is a terrific human being. ... I think Mario is stirring the pot. That's what he does and he does it well."

Cuomo, who was leading in the polls in late 1991 when he decided against a race for the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination, also criticized Lieberman for saying that Howard Dean was too liberal to win the White House.

"I think that's an unfortunate confession by Lieberman of weakness," Cuomo told WROW-AM about the Connecticut senator.