AL GORE
The Catalyst
Think you know everything about America's most influential environmentalist? Here's a quick quiz to see how core Gore you really are.

1. In the family living room, Tipper Gore keeps:
(A) portraits of Al from age one to 19 (B) a full drum kit and congas (C) a 42-inch plasma TV, constantly playing An Inconvenient Truth

2. Gore held the first congressional hearing on climate change in:
(A) 1979 (B) 1986 (C) 1996

3. Gore is the only vice president to have:
(A) visited Antarctica and the North Pole (B) summited Mount Rainier (C) run a marathon (D) all of the above

4. What animated show has Gore lent his voice to?
(A) The Simpsons (B) Futurama (C) SpongeBob SquarePants

5. Gore was:
(A) Tommy Lee Jones's Harvard roommate (B) nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize (C) No. 1 on the New York Times Best Seller List for three weeks (D) all of the above

6. Gore's next big adventure is:
(A) The Assault on Reason, a book due out in May, about society's need to pay attention to facts (B) You Can Call Me Al, a memoir to be released in July (C) bulls—Gore is restoring his Black Angus cattle farm outside Carthage, Tennessee (D) An Even More Inconvenient Truth, a critique of the Bush administration's disregard for science

Answers: 1. B; 2. A; 3. D; 4. B; 5. D; 6. A
—Jason Daley

ELIOT SPITZER
Governor of New York
Spitzer, 47, won a whopping 69 percent of the vote last November, thanks in large part to his reputation as a fearless attorney general who's gone after sloppy power plants and noxious chemical factories that have failed to curb pollution. Here are some of his prizefights, past and present:

1. In 2000, Spitzer helped force coal-burning Virginia Electric Power Company to cut by about 70 percent its production of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide—infamous toxins that float hundreds of miles north and cause acid rain. The utility also coughed up a staggering $1.2 billion in fines and pollution control.

2. In 2003, Spitzer busted Dow AgroSciences for claiming its pesticide line Dursban was safe, despite repeated warnings from the EPA that an ingredient, chlorpyrifos, caused brain defects in kids. Spitzer sued Dow, which was dinged with a $2 million fine, at the time the largest for such a crime in U.S. history.

3. Last June, Spitzer joined a coalition of 15 other state governments to go after the EPA itself—for at least the third time. The goal was to stop electric companies from producing the 48 tons of mercury that poison waterways and fish and sicken up to 600,000 children each year. The suit is still pending, but given Spitzer's record, the EPA has reason to be nervous.
—Tim Neville