After announcing last night that former Vice President Al Gore would appear with House Democrats at the Capitol today to discuss energy, Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office said this morning that the event had been canceled.

Just after the announcement was released, the White House updated President Obama's schedule to include a Rose Garden speech on "the importance of passing a historic energy bill." The speech is scheduled for 1:45 p.m. -- the Gore event had been scheduled for 2 p.m.

Later in the morning at her weekly press conference, Pelosi said the number of Democrats undecided on the Waxman-Markey energy and climate change bill had decreased, so Gore's trip from Tennessee was unnecessary.

Minority Leader John Boehner's office later distributed a press release calling Gore "too toxic" for battleground state Democrats to appear with. The release included a blue/red state map of the 2000 electoral college results. As might be remembered, the entire middle of the country (aside from four upper Midwestern states) was red.

UPDATE: NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain sends out this comment on the subject: "How is a Democrat sitting in a swing district going to tell their constituents with a straight face that they were undecided on whether or not to support a national energy tax until Al Gore or Nancy Pelosi convinced them it was the right thing to do? The cast of characters forcing this vote are putting dozens of Democrat House members into a position they won't be able to defend come 2010."