ASHINGTON - Near the Gore campaign headquarters in Nashville, the Republican National Committee has rented a huge billboard asking the question, ''Why should we believe that you will tell the truth as president, if you don't tell the truth as a candidate?''
Never mind that the question was originally uttered by Vice President Al Gore's since-fallen Democratic primary challenger, Bill Bradley. It summed up the Republican strategy, and the billboard was an in-your-face reminder to the Gore campaign that the vice president should expect an ongoing attack on his character during his quest to become president.
The campaign of his Republican opponent, Texas Governor George W. Bush, openly acknowledges the strategy. While stressing that Bush wants to run an issues-oriented campaign, his campaign spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said that a president can't accomplish any of his goals ''if you don't first restore honor and integrity to the White House.''
Bush's campaign has been unceasing in its assault on Gore's integrity, accusing him of fund-raising abuses and of improperly seeking confidential Internal Revenue Service information on behalf of a labor union. The campaign even faxes reporters the text of late-night talk show jokes about Gore's fund-raising scandal past.
New York Senate candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton is being targeted in a similar manner, with Republican New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani accusing the first lady of, among other things, using taxpayer money for campaign flights.
The sleaze factor has been a common theme of Republicans trying to frustrate or bring down the Clinton White House. From Whitewater to the Monica S. Lewinsky affair to the Lincoln Bedroom hospitality extended to Clinton campaign contributors, Republicans have for seven years tried to paint the president as unethical and even criminal.
But the Republicans, unable to oust President Clinton on a series of ethics-related issues, think the character issue can work for them against Gore and Mrs. Clinton because they say the public is tired of the succession of scandals during this administration.
The Democrats scoff at that notion, and say that a character-assassination attempt will backfire on Republicans in both the presidential and congressional races.
''Voters have grown tired of it,'' said John Del Cecato, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, noting that the Republicans lost five House seats in 1998 despite a last-minute advertising blitz focusing on the Lewinsky matter.
Since the country is at peace and the economy is strong, it makes sense for the Republicans to use the character issue against Mrs. Clinton and Gore, said Lee Miringoff of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion in upstate New York.
''It can resonate among voters,'' Miringoff said, but added that it's not likely to turn an election. ''That stuff alone is not a 50-percenter for the Republicans,'' he said.
The Gore campaign is so confident that the vice president, in a politically audacious move that has both baffled and enraged the Republicans, said he would make campaign-finance reform a key issue in his presidential campaign.
Gore has admitted he behaved improperly when he made campaign fund-raising calls from his White House office and solicited contributions from nuns and monks at a Buddhist temple in California.
Gore has ''personal experience'' with learning ''how corrupt the system is,'' said Gore spokesman Chris Lehane. A Republican effort to smear Gore with his own fund-raising past will only end up damaging Bush, Lehane said.
Bush - who has eschewed public financing so he has no limit on his campaign spending - ''has his own issues'' that make him vulnerable on campaign finance issues, Lehane said.
But the fight over campaign finance could be just a prelude. If the character debate turns ugly, don't be surprised if Gore counters with direct questions about Bush's past, some Democrats say - perhaps even resurrecting lingering questions about Bush's alleged drug use.
In the meantime, there are still some potential land mines facing the White House.
The Office of the Special Prosecutor is expected to release two more reports this year. One is on the Whitewater issue, which could cause difficulties for Mrs. Clinton if the special prosecutor determines that she benefited financially from improper investments, and the second is on ''Travelgate,'' the allegation that the Clintons fired the White House travel office and replaced it with their own friends and associates.
The first lady ''may not be as good at dodging bullets as her husband has been,'' said John Zogby, a New York pollster.
And while Gore is not facing a special prosecutor's verdict on his campaign financing activities, the Republicans still plan to hammer away at him on the issue.
''If Al Gore is for campaign finance reform, then Bonnie and Clyde are for better bank security,'' Fleischer said. ''The governor thought it was April Fools' Day come early'' when Gore made the comments.
''For him to be the apostle of campaign finance reform is like Clinton running on an antiadultery platform. It's ridiculous,'' said Dick Morris, a former Clinton adviser who left his job amid a scandal of his own. ''But if the Republicans think they can convince people that Gore should be in jail instead of in the White House,'' said Morris, they'll be disappointed.
