Gore didn't win, because Dems screwed up royally.

They wanted to distance themselves with Bill, because of the frigging blowjob. They don't have any backbone, and they always try to hard to "figure out" what voters might think, instead of doing something they actually think and they want.

I don't think there is any "used by Republicans" part. Don't try to paint W as an innocent puppy. He did NOT veto ONCE when republicans controlled the congress. If you want to claim that as "used", W has certainly come out and screamed "please use me, for anything you want!"