he intensifying hostility between Al Gore and Bill Bradley crackled across the Internet this week, as each candidate launched a new online assault on the other's integrity.
Political Web sites typically are upbeat affairs, gentle and airbrushed in their celebration of the heroic candidate and reluctant to mention opponents. But as the Democratic campaign has gone negative, so have the Web sites. Now, Gore and Bradley are acknowledging the villains in their online utopias.
''Who is the real Al Gore?'' asks a new Bradley Web site, www.moreaboutgore.com, which features an image of the vice president solemnly wagging his finger in the air. Nearby is an image of a magnifying glass and the message, ''Take a closer look. You'll be surprised at what you see.''
The new site is designed to supplement Bradley's recent line of attack that Gore has hidden his conservative record as a member of Congress in the 1970s and 1980s. Visitors can click on links to several issues Bradley is highlighting for voting records and quotations to show that Gore has modified his positions on abortion, gun control, and health care.
The Bradley site even includes photo images of letters Gore sent to constituents in the 1980s, detailing his reservations about abortion. Gore now says he adamantly favors abortion rights.
The Bradley camp also began running a radio ad in Washington state featuring the site's address, concentrating his efforts there leading up to the state's primary Tuesday.
This week Gore's campaign Web site began featuring the Bradley Information Bureau, designed to ''provide factual information on Bradley's public statements.''
More to the point, the new feature - found within Gore's existing Web site at www.algore2000.com - seeks to co-opt Bradley's recent charges that Gore is dishonest and untrustworthy.
On Tuesday, the Gore site even featured one of Bradley's harshest lines of the campaign - but turned it back on Bradley.
''Why should we believe that you will tell the truth as president if you don't tell the truth as a candidate?'' asked the Gore site, repeating Bradley's question to the vice president during a Jan. 26 debate in Manchester, N.H. The site said it would ''help voters answer that question for themselves.''
The Gore campaign says Bradley is the one who has been dishonest, and the Web site listed quotes to suggest Bradley has been misleading voters about everything from his net worth to how much time he spent attending public school as a child.
The Gore site also quoted a Bradley flier, passed out before Monday night's debate in Harlem, in which Bradley promises, ''I won't spend my time attacking my opponent on votes from long ago.'' In recent days Bradley repeatedly has assailed Gore on votes dating back more than 20 years.
Yesterday, the Bradley Information Bureau featured a critique of Bradley's latest ad, saying it ''distorts Gore's record'' on abortion.
The Gore site also displayed a 1999 Bradley quote that seemed to capture the campaign: ''It takes discipline to be positive,'' Bradley said, ''because it's easy to slip the other way.''
