The real rumble
There won't be any steel cage or referees at the debate sponsored by the group Judicial Watch, but maybe there should be. No doubt Gore had little idea what he was getting into last week when became the first candidate to accept the anti-Clinton organization's invitation to discuss ethics in government. So far, the Reform Party's Pat Buchanan, the Libertarian Party's Harry Browne and the Constitution Party's Howard Phillips have also signed up, but no acceptance has yet come from the Bush campaign.

Gore gets bushwhacked in ad
The two leading candidates are pulling off the gloves in their television spots, according to the New York Times. A 30-second ad set to start airing Friday in 16 states goes after Gore's perceived weaknesses: inconsistency on the issues, ethical lapses and his tendency to exaggerate. The spot, titled "Really," features a disembodied female voice mocking the vice president for "reinventing himself on television again" as different unflattering moments in his career flash across the TV screen. Bush campaign officials deny that the ad breaks their pledge to stay on the high road. "It's a good-natured way of making a very important point," said Bush communications chief Karen Hughes of the new commercial. "That is: the gaping credibility gap between what Vice President Gore says and what Vice President Gore does." Through the miracle of soft money, the ad doesn't technically come from the Bush camp, but is sponsored by the Republican National Committee. Bush killed another RNC anti-Gore ad last week for distorting facts.

Betting on the high road
The vice president has a reputation for getting down and dirty on the campaign trail himself, but CNN reports that Gore won't return fire, at least not over this commercial. Though the Democratic National Committee had its own Bush-bashing ad ready to run, it's now on hold because Gore and party officials don't want to blunt any backlash caused by the RNC's "Really" spot. Veep hopeful Joseph Lieberman, Gore's go-to guy on moral outrage, started testing the strategy hours after the RNC announced its ad. "Governor Bush has sadly changed his tune about changing the tone," Lieberman lectured, saying the spot "takes us back to the worst politics of the past." Others in Gore's campaign went further and tried to use the commercial to turn one of Bush's favorite lines against him. "When Bush's back is against the wall, he will do anything to get elected," said Gore spokesman Mark Fabiani. "He visited Bob Jones University, he saluted the Confederate flag, and now he's going to break his own promise, made for a year, that he would not engage in personal negative attacks."

Bush backs Boy Scouts on gay ban
As campaign operatives sniped over ads, the Texas governor asked the Clinton administration not to untie the government's knot with the Boy Scouts of America over its ban on homosexual troop leaders. The Washington Times reports that Bush's request comes as the Justice Department is exploring whether certain government relations with the group violate Clinton's executive order barring federal agencies from discriminating against gays. "For many years, the Boy Scouts have conducted Jamborees and other events on public lands and provided thousands of volunteer hours to help maintain our national parks," Bush said. "I hope that President Clinton and Vice President [Al] Gore respect the role the Boy Scouts play in our society and will not allow them to be shut out of federal lands." Bush, Gore, Lieberman and Clinton are all former Scouts, and the president is the honorary chairman of the organization.

Back to the issues
When he wasn't talking about the Boy Scouts yesterday, Bush was pumping up his education plan. Reuters reports that Bush has tried to turn attention to his $5 billion reading program as his weeklong campaign tour focusing on school reform winds down. The Republican candidate's proposal aims to ensure that every child can read by the seventh grade.

Meanwhile, Gore talked up his favorite issue in a Washington state campaign stop, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The vice president whipped up a crowd of cheering supporters with calls for Congress to pass the Democratic version of the Patients' Bill of Rights. During other stops in the state, Gore defended Lieberman against charges of excessive public piety, reminded voters of the experience gap between him and Bush and answered more tittering inquiries about "The Kiss." But not all Gore's encounters were friendly. During the Seattle rally, a small group of demonstrators kept at the crowd's edge repeatedly shouted, "Let Ralph debate!" Green Party candidate Ralph Nader has not been invited to the fall forums sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates.

On Wall Street, a different shade of Green
While some of his Seattle supporters dogged Gore, Nader spent Thursday in a New York state of mind. The Associated Press reports that the consumer rights advocate blasted "corporate welfare" and singled out General Electric for its history of polluting the Hudson River. "GE factories intentionally dumped more than a million pounds of potentially cancer causing PCBs into the Hudson from 1946 until they were banned in 1977," he said. Wednesday evening Nader attended a fundraiser, which was noticeably downscale compared with the pricey affairs of the Democratic and Republican candidates. The Green Party event cost participants $10.

Hillary spy caper
Elsewhere in New York politics, the first lady tried to finagle a soft cell for convicted spy Jonathan Pollard. "This issue was brought to Hillary Clinton's attention, and she was concerned on humanitarian grounds," said campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson. "She had those concerns conveyed to the appropriate authorities." The New York Post reports that Clinton intervened on Pollard's behalf after Jewish leaders told her that he was going to be transferred out of the relatively safe North Carolina prison unit where he has spent the past seven years. Though some in the Jewish community have already thanked the first lady for her intervention, it's not clear whether plans for Pollard have actually changed; federal prison authorities have declined to comment on the matter.

On the trail
Buchanan: No public events.
Bush: Louisiana, Arkansas.
Gore: Washington.
Nader: To be announced.

Poll positions
Presidential race:

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