ERLIN, N.H. - The man who once wrote a book calling Rush Limbaugh a ''big fat idiot'' yesterday took aim at Bill Bradley, depicting the former New Jersey senator as a pampered, overpaid corporate insider.
But moments after comedian Al Franken's bad-cop monologue, Gore took the stage at Merrimack High School in Penacook to play good cop in his Democratic presidential primary battle with Bradley.
''I want to keep all of our disagreements and differences on the basis of issues and substance,'' Gore said, telling an exuberant audience of about 500 that he respects Bradley's character.
It was the latest example of how Gore and Bradley have relied on surrogates to deliver their harshest messages. On Friday, Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey boarded Bradley's campaign bus to lambaste the Clinton-Gore administration as ''corrupted'' and failure-plagued.
In recent days, the candidates' detailed policy initiatives have been replaced by competing potshots - even as each man says he is committed to positive campaigning.
Gore focused yesterday on race and the Republican Party. Meeting with a multiracial group at a Nashua home, Gore said the GOP has been insensitive on racial issues such as the Confederate flag, hate crime laws, and affirmative action.
In an interview for CNN's ''Both Sides with Jesse Jackson'' yesterday, Gore said ''the Republican Party does not have an agenda that is supported by and helpful to African-Americans.''
And he toughened his words about GOP front-runner George W. Bush's refusal to take a position on the flying of the Confederate flag over South Carolina's State House.
''I think he is worried about alienating some supporters who he believes have a different attitude,'' Gore said. Bush has ''ducked the issue because he is playing to some of his supporters that I think have some pretty obsolete and even hateful attitudes,'' he added.
In the GOP debate yesterday afternoon, Bush did not address the flag issue, but said the GOP should ''repudiate'' a South Carolina state senator who had insulted the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Meanwhile, Gore's aides were delighted by the words of Franken, who lampooned Bradley's claim to have conducted ''a dialogue with the American people'' while traveling the country as a businessman since 1996.
In remarks that a Gore aide urged reporters not to miss, Franken depicted Bradley as a pampered, overpaid speechgiver cozy with corporate moguls.
''You fly first class to ... Vail to do your dialogue with the American people, which usually involves the head of Merck,'' Franken said. ''Then you go to dinner and sit with the head of Salomon Brothers or Pfizer, and you continue your dialogue with the American people.''
Since leaving the Senate, Bradley has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars giving speeches and acting as a corporate consultant. But a Bradley spokesman noted that Bradley also taught a public policy seminar at the University of Notre Dame and cochaired a coalition pushing for campaign finance reform.
''It sounds like Al Gore's negative attacks are even dragging Al Franken down into the gutter,'' said Bradley press aide Kristen Ludecke.
Gore spokesman Chris Lehane said there was no contradiction between Gore's call for a substantive campaign and Franken's zingers, saying that such humorous attacks should not be taken too seriously.
''It's pretty clear that Al Franken is acting as a comedian and was acting in his capacity as a comedian,'' Lehane said. ''There's a pretty clear difference between that and Senator Bradley attacking us every day this week in a very negative way himself.''
Gore's speech was interrupted by a group of environmental protesters, several of whom were ushered from the hall.
In addition, a man was forced from the auditorium by police after he became violent with audience members and scuffled with police. Concord police later identified the man as a 49-year-old Laconia resident who had legally changed his name to R. U. Outavit. Police said he was not armed or dangerous.
A Newsweek magazine poll released yesterday showed that Gore has the support of 50 percent of New Hampshire voters who plan to vote in the Feb. 1 primary, compared with 34 percent for Bradley. The poll, which differed from recent polls that showed a neck-and-neck race in the state, has a margin of error of 7 percentage points.
The Newsweek poll also showed that on the Republican side, John McCain was supported by 42 percent of voters, compared with Bush's 34 percent.
