Gore, Hundt blow cable kisses. (Vice Pres. Al Gore and FCC Chairman Reed Hundt at 1996 National Cable Television Association convention)

LOS ANGELES - They came to praise cable, not bury it.

In their speeches at the National Show here last week, two of the cable industry's harshest critics, Vice President Al Gore and Federal Communications Commission chairman Reed Hundt, had nothing but admiration for cable and urged operators to aggressively pursue new lines of business.

In a turnaround from past episodes of cable-bashing, Gore gave operators and programmers high marks for combating violent programming, creating educational and children's fare and exerting "forceful and pragmatic advocacy" for the Telecommunications Act.

The Telecom Act "could not have occurred without the cable industry's good judgment, vision and willingness to compromise," Gore gushed, singling out National Cable Television Association president Decker Anstrom for praise.

"On issue after issue, you have honored the obligations of citizenship and served the public interest in ways that are truly impressive," Gore said. He repeatedly called cable firms good corporate citizens. He cited cable initiatives such as Voices Against Violence and Cable in the Classroom.

And he urged the industry to go hell-bent-for-leather against the telcos.

"This is what the [Telecom] Act is all about - competition, not consolidation," he said.

In his policy breakfast speech the next day, Hundt heaped praise on cable for providing children's educational programming - something he said broadcasters were stubbornly resisting. He applauded cable for embracing the concept of parental control over what kids watch on TV - a step he called "crucial" to the passage of the V-chip.

"As the vice president said yesterday, this has won you many friends and well-deserved praise throughout Washington and the country," Hundt said.

But Hundt said the industry had to confront "the ultimate challenge" - linking every child in every classroom to the Internet by the end of the century.

Hundt's message also spelled out the opportunity for cable to enter the local phone business subsequent to completion of the FCC's interconnection rulemaking in August.

"You can give us real choice in the telephone markets," he said.

Federal bureaucrats also joined in the lovefest. Maureen O'Connell, legal adviser to FCC commissioner James Quello, said the cable industry's image has done a complete turnaround since 1992.

"My boss has lived through cable being on the hot plate of public criticism and being deemed the big, bad monopolists," she said.

Quello's concern today is the market power of local phone companies.

"From his perspective, he views the telephone companies as a much more serious threat to competition than the cable operators right now," O'Connell said.

Several operators and industry executives said they were surprised that Gore's tone and message were so complimentary. It stood in contrast not only to past criticism of cable by Gore, but also to his recent jaw-boning of broadcasters for a commitment to three hours of children's programming per week.

"Instead of being taken to the woodshed, we're being taken to the launch pad," said Dan Brenner, the NCTA's vice president for law and regulatory policy.

But not everyone was impressed.

"The vice president talks with forked tongue," said one cable lobbyist, who said Gore still supports government-subsidized public educational television, harming the interests of cable programmers that are interested in educational television.

The lobbyist also claimed that Gore supports a regulatory framework that doesn't contain enough safeguards to protect competitors from the Bell monopolies.

Gore never mentioned cable rates, despite recent publicity over double-digit increases by former nemesis Tele-Communications Inc. He alluded to past critiques of TCI by saying that some in the audience may have thought Sen. Al Gore was "Washington's answer to Darth Vader." Gore once compared TCI president and CEO John Malone to the Star Wars villain.

He even gave cable credit for improving customer service. If all goes well, he said, The Cable Guy's sequel will star Harrison Ford.

Perhaps not surprisingly in an election year, the bad guys in Gore's talk were House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and Senate Majority Leader and probable GOP presidential nominee Robert Dole (R-Kan.). They, along with more than 400 federal lawmakers, have declined to sign a letter to the FCC supporting the three-hour children's programming plan. About 100 other lawmakers signed it.

Broadcasters came across as less-enlightened beings who need to be encouraged to do better. "Cable has shown that we can do better," he said.

Sensing the upbeat mood, Anstrom said the industry was poised for a "new revolution." With the Telecom Act's passage in February, "we have reset the course of the cable television industry," he said.

But Anstrom reminded operators that the 1984 Cable Act was a victory that the industry partially squandered by failing to "exercise restraint in prices."

This time, he said, "we will not get another chance."

In his opening address, TCI Communications Inc. president Brendan Clouston was equally sanguine. Filling in for Malone, Clouston said TCI "can make the investment" to upgrade for telephony and Internet access and "make it back in three to five years."