Election briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 9, 2000

Clinton and Lazio debate, spar over soft money again

NEW YORK -- Hillary Rodham Clinton, facing Republican Rep. Rick Lazio in the second debate of their Senate campaign, took him to task Sunday for what she says is a violation of their agreement to ban outside money from the race.

"Last month, Mr. Lazio said this was an issue of trust and character. He was right," Clinton said. "And, if New Yorkers can't trust him to keep his word for 10 days, how can they trust him for six years?"

Lazio, who insists he has not violated the agreement, blasted her back, raising the issue of whether the Clintons have used sleepovers at the White House and Camp David to generate campaign contributions.

"Mrs. Clinton, please, no lectures from Motel 1600," he said, referring to the White House's 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. address.

In recent weeks, several polls have shown Clinton opening up a 7- to 10-percentage point lead in the race, a shift many analysts attributed to Lazio's aggressive debate performance last month.

Distant cousin of Lieberman killed in Mideast violence

JERUSALEM -- A U.S. citizen who was a distant cousin of Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman was found shot to death Sunday night in the West Bank, one of the victims of the ongoing violence between Palestinians and Israelis.

Hillel Lieberman, 37, had been living in the West Bank settlement of Elon Moreh, and attended the yeshiva at a Jewish shrine, Joseph's Tomb, which was sacked by Palestinians over the weekend in Nablus.

People who are in contact with his family said Lieberman set out on foot Saturday morning, during the Jewish sabbath, to reach Nablus, but never made it.

"He heard they were attacking Joseph's Tomb. He went down to try to save the Torah scrolls," said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

Hillel Lieberman's father is Zevulan Lieberman, a prominent rabbi in Brooklyn, N.Y. Hoenlein, who knows the family, said they had recently discovered they were "second or third" cousins of the Connecticut senator.

Gore's credibility, Bush's intelligence are attacked

AUSTIN, Texas -- Al Gore's camp sparred with George W. Bush advisers Sunday over whether Gore shades the truth and whether Bush has the intellectual capacity to be president.

"This nonsense is not what this campaign should be about," Democratic vice presidential nominee Joseph Lieberman said of a rising Republican assault on Gore's credibility.

As Gore and Bush plunged into preparations for Wednesday's second presidential debate, their surrogates took to the airwaves to trade accusations, unleashing some of the sharpest personal attacks yet.

"The vice president has consistently and repeatedly made up things, exaggerated, embellished facts," Bush spokeswoman Karen Hughes told Fox News Sunday.

Mark Fabiani, Gore's deputy campaign manager, told CNN's Late Edition that Bush "was incoherent, he was babbling" in trying to explain his own tax-cut proposal at a Saturday campaign stop in Florida.

Bush holed up Sunday at his central Texas ranch to prepare for Wednesday's debate in Winston-Salem, N.C., and Gore headed to Sarasota for his own debate prep sessions.

Gore remains in Florida until Wednesday. Bush will be in Texas until Tuesday, when he campaigns in Gore's home state of Tennessee, where recent polls show Bush inching ahead.

Bush aide exults over campaign's 'momentum'

Texas Gov. George W. Bush's chief political strategist, Karl Rove, said Sunday on CNN's Late Edition that the Republican ticket has "tremendous momentum."

He was buoyed by two new polls. The latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup daily tracking poll showed Bush leading Gore, 49 to 41 percent, while a Reuters/MSNBC survey showed the race in a statistical dead heat, with Gore leading Bush 44 percent to 42 percent, down from a 6-percentage-point gap last week. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

"We're competing in states that Republicans have not won in recent years," Rove said. "We're competing in five states ... that (former Massachusetts Gov.) Michael Dukakis carried, so we feel very good about the state of the campaign now."

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright