Negative advertisements make Clinton "squirm"

Washington, Oct 30: After a brief lull, the White House sex scandal roared back to life on Friday as both parties sought to fire up voters o...

Washington, Oct 30: After a brief lull, the White House sex scandal roared back to life on Friday as both parties sought to fire up voters over President Bill Clinton’s political troubles ahead of next week’s elections.

“In its eleventh-hour desperation, the Republican attack machine had gone into overdrive, pouring millions and millions of special interest dollars into negative advertisements,” Vice-President Al Gore speaking to reporters said.

Gore, who summoned journalists to hear his hot-tempered response to the advertisement campaign launched on Tuesday, said he was shocked to learn that Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich personally masterminded’ the ads.

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The $ 10 million ad blitz includes January footage of Clinton — who confessed to the affair in August wagging his finger at the camera and vehemently denying any sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky.

The three 30-second spots are the first direct assault on Clinton featuring the embarrassing scandal since polls showed a backlashagainst their October 8 vote to open impeachment hearings.

Gore said the Republicans, lacking any compelling policy positions, “are unleashing the personal partisan attack dogs” ahead of the November 3 mid-term elections. The Vice-President said that while the Democrats focused on health care and education, the “Gingrich plan (offers) more negative ads, more personal attacks, more partisan investigations, more of the politics of destruction.”

Democrats have sought to tie the Republican Party to the highly unpopular Gingrich, the combative Georgia representative linked with the right-wing of the party. The Republicans immediately responded in kind.

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“The Democrats find themselves out of ideas, so they’ve turned back to the oldest trick in their book, demonize Newt Gingrich,” said National Republican Congressional Committee chairman John Linder at a press conference.

Clinton, who was campaigning for his party in New York on Friday, did not mention the ads but alluded to high stakes in Tuesday’svote, when all 435 House seats and 34 of the 100 Senate seats are up for grabs.

“This is no ordinary election, no ordinary time,” he said as he left the White House.

“I hope every American will go and vote, and vote in good conscience, and vote on what is important to this country and its future,” he added.

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Democrats are worried that their supporters will be demoralized by the scandal and bring turnout even lower than is traditional for the party which controls the White House.

The Democrats are also hoping that smaller-than-expected gains by Republicans will chasten that party when Congress opens impeachment hearings after the elections.

On another Front, Clinton’s special counsel Greg Craig applauded a court decision to release new documents on a probe into whether the special sex scandal investigator leaked information illegally to bolster his case.