On Monday and Tuesday, the Bush campaign sent out 22 press releases to national reporters, six dealing with the vice president's mother-in-law and dog.

But they're having a tough time of it. While a few dozen newspapers have written about Shilohgate, none of the network TV news shows have reported on the flap. Even with the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times weighing in Wednesday about the issue, nearly all of the accounts have reported the story as a Bush assault against Gore, and not a legitimate story on its own. "In Harshest Attack Yet, Cheney Accuses Gore of Fabrications," reads the headline in Wednesday's New York Times.

The senior GOP official says he doubts that slamming Gore for being a chronic fibber will be enough. "If they're just trying to make this into a 'Love Story,' 'Love Canal,' 'I invented the Internet' thing, that won't work so much," he said. "We've been down that road before. It's a cul-de-sac."

But, the official says, in combination with a host of other news items -- Bush's magnificent performance on Tuesday's "Oprah Winfrey Show," Gore's bashing of the entertainment industry while collecting millions of its dollars, a New York Times report about how a Democratic National Committee aide had alluded to a possible Clinton veto of tort reform while fundraising among trial lawyers, the Wen Ho Lee disaster -- might just help turn the tide.

"The tactical move feeds more into the strategy" for a shift in momentum, the GOP source says. "The tide's turning a bit." And while Shilohgate isn't the strongest case against Gore, the official acknowledges, "it doesn't do any harm."

Not exactly a ringing endorsement -- and with good reason. The first problem with this particular Bush assault, Gore communications director Mark Fabiani eagerly points out, is that no one has a record of what Gore precisely said on Aug. 28 in Tallahassee. Even the Boston Globe story was oddly bereft of the exact quote -- which a reporter would only leave out if he didn't actually have it.

And for the TV guys -- who always need a pretty picture -- no videotape has surfaced of the questionable comment, unlike the footage of Bush smiling and cursing about a New York Times reporter while Cheney chimes in, "Big time."

Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett acknowledges that his campaign doesn't have the transcript. And while the Gore campaign has never disputed the possibility that Gore might have gotten a little carried away with his rhetoric -- it's certainly happened before -- that's not quite a smoking gun.

In fact, the Associated Press reported that Gore's comments that day gave him plenty of wiggle room to argue that he was speaking in general terms about the prices. "While it costs $108 for a person, it costs $37.80 for a dog," Gore said in the Aug. 28 report.

Still, the senior GOP official says, "If the Gore people aren't disputing it, then he probably said it." But more importantly, as Gore asserted Tuesday, his general point was essentially correct. "The issue is what seniors around the country are paying, and the wholesale price is between two and three times what is charged for pets," the Gore said.

Fabiani says that while the Bush campaign kept pressing for precise figures, it ended up being close enough. The studies show that, generally, the comparative cost for human drug vs. the doggie drug is "2.8 times, not three," Fabiani says. "And [Aitcheson] paid 2.315 a capsule times as much as was paid for the dog."

Bush's Bartlett disagrees. "We're talking about prescription drugs," he says. "We're talking about explaining to seniors one of the most important issues in the campaign, which is prescription drugs. Gore's the one who injected Shiloh and his mother-in-law into it."

So Shilohgate, the Bush campaign contends, actually is about the issues.

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