GOP Unveils Ad Campaign
In the home stretch to Tuesday's mid-term elections, Republicans enjoy a $92 million fundraising advantage over Democrats, and the GOP is unleashing an advertising campaign that exploits the Clinton sex scandal.
CBS News Correspondents Peter Maer and Bob Fuss report on the latest barrage of attack campaign ads airing in the final days of the election.
The $10 million ad campaign, airing just days before Tuesday's congressional elections, features three separate ads aimed at different voters, focusing about Clinton's denials about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
They vary in the directness in which they depict the scandal surrounding the White House but all use the theme that voters should not trust Clinton after he denied to the nation for seven months that he had sexual relations with the former White House intern.
Democrats view the ads as a desperate GOP move to hold on to Congress. A party spokeswomen called it a "$10 million excuse for Republican failure." Another source predicted the GOP ads will backfire and energize the Democratic vote.
Vice President Al Gore denounced the campaign on Wednesday as an act of Republican desperation.
"This is all a partisan smokescreen designed to help the Republicans try to increase their power in the next Congress with the elections November 3 so that they can then stop all the progress that Americans want to see" Gore said during a high technology event in Washington. "This is the kind of desperation we can expect from Republicans as we get so close to Election Day."
The White House said the ads showed more about the Republicans than Clinton.
"This is a very clarifying event where the public is going to get to see what the Republicans are about and what the Democrats are about," White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart said. "They've decided to take some of the money they've stored away to launch an 11th hour attack on the president."
One of the ads features a conversation between two women in their 30s in which one asks, "`What did you tell your kids?" and the other responds, "I didn't know what to say." The first goes on, "It's wrong. For seven months he lied to us."
The ad ends with a list of what Republicans say they have accomplished, including cutting taxes, balancing the budget, reforming welfare and coming up with a plan to save Social Security.
A second ad does not mention the scandal at all and promotes Republican initiatives. But it ends with the famous video of Clinton wagging his finger when he declared he never had sexual relations with Lewinsky but with a voice over saying "Remember, it's your choice. For balance, vote Republican."
Republicans plan to run those two ads in some large media markets in the few days left before Tuesday's mid-term election.
A third ad, which was scheduled to move in some southern congressional districts, begins with a list of alleged Democatic policy wrongs and ends with the announcer asking, "And should we reward not telling the truth? That is the question of this election, Reward Bill Clinton. Or, vote Republican."
The ads are part of a last minute barrage of messages leading up to election day.
The airwaves are filled with political attack ads, and ironically many of the ads do not come from the candidates.
The Republican Party is pouring millions of dollars in unregulated 'soft money' into what they call "Operation Breakout".
Democratic Party Chairman Roy Rohmer is also buying ads, although his budget is considerably smaller. "They have money on their side" Rohmer says, "we have better issues on our side."
The parties themselves are not the only source of ads. Special interest groups also producing and placing ads. The Sierra Club, for example, is actively advertising for Wisconsin Senator Russell Feingold. Feingold led the campaign to ban soft money. He refuses to accept any in his campaign and is now being dramatically outspent.