GOP Pulls Ad Attacking Gore, Citing Wrong Message and Tone

Republican Party officials on Wednesday abruptly yanked an attack ad against Vice President Al Gore after deciding it might contradict rival George W. Bush’s pledge to “change the tone” in Washington.

The commercial, which was delivered to hundreds of stations around the country for broadcast today, was also misleading, Democratic officials charged. It showed a video clip of Gore appearing to comment on the Monica S. Lewinsky affair with President Clinton when it was actually from an NBC interview years before the scandal broke.

A Republican National Committee official said the ad sent the wrong message.

“It was probably not useful or productive,” the RNC official said. “It’s not the right message and not the right tone.”

Officials for Bush’s presidential campaign said they advised the RNC not to run the ad, though the final decision was made by party officials.

And while the ad was deemed too negative, Bush has made it clear repeatedly in the last few days that Gore and his role in the 1996 fund-raising scandals will play a role in the campaign. “We believe Al Gore’s credibility will be an issue in this campaign, but it’s important that it’s presented in a credible way,” said Dan Bartlett, a Bush spokesman.

Democratic officials sought to portray the ad as evidence of confusion among Republicans in the face of polls showing Gore is gaining momentum after spending most of the spring trailing the Texas governor.

They noted that Bush also said earlier this week that he needs to do a better of job explaining the benefits of his tax cut plan.

“This is just the latest example that the Bush campaign is in disarray,” said Chris Lehane, a Gore spokesman. “Yesterday, Bush couldn’t defend his tax plan and today he is mired in an indefensible ad debacle.”

The video for the ad was taken from a 1994 interview in which NBC correspondent Lisa Myers was asking Gore about his charges that Oliver L. North was a “pathological liar.”

The following exchange between Myers and Gore forms the core of the ad:

Myers: “If the charge is lying, can you say that neither you nor President Clinton has told a lie in your political career?”

Gore: “I, uh, none spring to mind. I’ll tell you that. And I, uh, let me say again . . . “

Myers: “And President Clinton has not uttered a single untruth in the last two years?”

Gore: “Not that I have heard, absolutely not. And again, Lisa let me say that . . . “

Myers: “Not a single one?”

Gore: “Yes.”

Myers: “Never told a lie?”

Gore: “Well, look, uh, Lisa, um.”

The ad ends with a tag line that says, “Al Gore will say anything”--a reference to a continued refrain by Republicans that Gore has a penchant for exaggeration.

The ad was due to run in about 400 markets across the country, according to estimates from Democratic sources.