Pretty straightforward questions. Still, nobody called me back.

The next day, I called and asked to talk about a Bush press release I'd received at 8:38 a.m. EST slamming Vice President Al Gore for having allegedly "fabricated information about his mother-in-law and dog to score political points."

The call was returned almost immediately.

It wasn't that surprising, considering that on Monday Bush, running mate Dick Cheney and communications director Karen Hughes were all making extensive public comments about the dog story, which first appeared on Monday in the Boston Globe. According to a senior GOP official, this attack has little to do with the details of the dog story itself. Rather, it "begins to provide an excuse for reporters to write about the bloom coming off Gore's rose in the last month. Gore's having to play defense a bit, so reporters can say, 'Hey, Gore's not having the best week,' and it helps change the prism through which the media views the race."

In the past few weeks, as a rejuvenated Gore went though his post-convention "bounce," Bush's momentum was hobbled by a series of silly missteps: an insulting argument that his plea for shorter debates viewed by fewer people wasn't a dodge; calling a reporter a "major league asshole;" the subliminal "RATS" frame in a Republican National Committee anti-Gore ad; and his pronunciation of "subliminable."

And it would appear that Bush is trying to do the same to Gore, making him die the death of a dozen small, silly cuts. Declarations to the contrary, it appears that any renewed talk about "issues" has largely been put on the backburner. In its place: invented "scandals" the Bush campaign hopes will derail Gore's campaign and put him on the defensive. The Bush team has reached back more than a month, to August, for their ammo. And like "RATS," it involves guests from the animal kingdom -- a dog, and eels.

But the tactic, this week, has appeared awfully transparent, with some of the alleged ties to Gore more than a bit tenuous. The first charge has to do with a statement Gore may or may not have made -- as of yet, no one has produced the tape -- and a debate over whether that statement was exact or approximate. The second charge is even more spurious, dealing with the content of a CD given out at an event that the Bush campaign has inaccurately described as being a fundraiser, with direct ties to either Gore or the Democratic National Committee, where children were present -- none of which appears to be true.

Apparently, on Aug. 28 in Tallahassee, Fla., Gore had said that his mother-in-law, Margaret Ann Aitcheson, pays nearly three times as much for the arthritis medicine Lodine, than the vice president spends on virtually the same drug for his 14-year-old Labrador retriever, Shiloh. The Globe story raised questions about the legitimacy of the figures, which coincided exactly with those on a list of standard Democratic Party talking points, that compared the average cost of a prescription to Lodine ($108) to that of the canine Etogesic ($37.80).

When a spokesman from the Gore campaign allowed for the possibility that Aitcheson might not actually pay $108 a month for her Lodine, or that the vice president might not actually pay $37.80 for Shiloh's Etogesic, the Globe cried foul.

Gore's opponents soon followed.

"America better beware of a candidate who is willing to stretch reality in order to win points," Bush said Monday, Day 1 of his new issues-based campaign. "I have always been concerned about Vice President Gore's willingness to exaggerate in order to become elected ... Now he's exaggerating about family members of his, in order to make a point on a very highly charged, very emotional issue."

"It looks like another Al Gore invention," seconded Cheney in Seattle. "It strikes me that this was the kind of statement we have heard in the past from Al Gore and frankly, I would expect better from the vice president."

The Bush communications team was doing everything it could to encourage reporters to follow up on what Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett jokingly referred to as "Shilohgate."

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