DEMOCRATIC DEBATE Here are the particulars of tonight's Democratic presidential candidates debate. PARTICIPANTS: Vice President Al Gore, former Sen. Bill Bradley TIME: 7 p.m. PLACE: Johnson Theatren Paul Creative Arts Center, the University of New Hampshire MODERATOR: Peter Jennings, ABC News SPONSORS: New England Cable News, Manchester Union Leader, New Hampshire Public Television. MORE COVERAGE Bradley, Gore turn up heat in debate To many voters, personalities clear but policies aren't Press freed of campaign staff Bradley plays Clinton card against vice president Truth Squad: A mangled health plan in Democratic debate Excerpts of the debate UMass Boston to host fall presidential debate

The vice president said he'd served the public interest by defending the president against impeachment. And so the unmeasured factor of voter weariness with White House scandal went onto the agenda of Democratic campaign debate.

It's been skirted before -- Gore always says that people are fatigued with Clinton fatigue -- but it was part of the beginning and the end as he and Bradley met in their fourth debate of the campaign season Wednesday night.

Gore's game plan obviously was a different one, to home in on issues and items bearing on the nation's first presidential primary voters. He said Bradley's health care proposals would leave New Hampshire's needy "high and dry." He said the former New Jersey senator once voted for a Ronald Reagan economic plan that hurt New Hampshire.

He talked around the question of whether the administration was intruding on state authority with an environmental plan for the White Mountains. Bradley took the opportunity to say that he thinks decisions on land use -- in that case -- should be made by the state.

The debate began with a question that forced Gore to play defense, although it was first put to Bradley. He was asked if it would have been better for the nation had Gore acted differently during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

"The vice president I think was vice president, which means that he was not critical of the president," Bradley said.

"... I was critical of the president," Gore replied. "As an American, I also defended the office of the presidency against ... partisan Republicans." Gore said he served the public interest well.

Much of the debate dealt with points the two Democrats have covered before, in almost the same words on their rival health care plans, Bradley accusing Gore of reversing his advocacy of universal coverage, under the Clinton plan that got nowhere in Congress. Gore said he was dealing with reality, working toward universal coverage, but with steps that stand a chance of enactment and won't bust the budget surplus.

Bradley used that opening to again raise the issue of Clinton and White House conduct.

"No money to reach universal coverage," he said. "And when I hear you talk, Al, it reminds me of a Washington bunker. And I think you're in a Washington bunker.

"And I can understand why you're in a bunker. I mean there was Gingrich. There was the fund-raising scandals. There was the impeachment problem. And I think that the major objective in the last several years in the White House has been political survival...

"But the reality is, the Democratic Party shouldn't be in the Washington bunker with you," he said.

Gore didn't reply directly, but said he was proud to be among the Democrats who stayed in Washington to fight when Republicans took over Congress. He repeated an earlier slap at Bradley for retiring from the Senate in 1996.

Gore's allies countered for him. "Of course there are issues about the president and the president's personal life that have to be dealt with" said Secretary of Housing Andrew Cuomo. "But these issues are not relevant to the vice president."

Time will tell whether the voters agree.