In a strike matching an earlier one by the Democratic National Committee, the GOP may return fire in what's shaping up to be a presidential war of Web sites.

On Monday, the Republican National Committee reserved the sites, AlandJoe.com and AlandJoe.org -- named for Gore, who next week becomes the Democratic nominee for president, and running mate Lieberman, a senator from Connecticut.

Neither site is up and running, but they won't spread good news about the Democratic duo.

RNC deputy chief of staff Larry Purpuro registered the sites, but he wouldn't divulge his plans for them to "the opposition" or say when they would go online. But he did have some harsh words Wednesday for the DNC's earlier production, calling it "an attempt to mislead."

The Democratic National Committee has paid for and authorized Bush-Cheney.net, a site critical of Republican vice presidential nominee Dick Cheney's voting record when he served in Congress.

"We're not in the business of trying to fool the public with impostor Web sites," Purpuro said.

The RNC registered PhonyAlGore.com and BureaucratsForGore.com earlier this year, though neither are functional.

A Gore campaign spokesman did not return a telephone call Wednesday for comment.

When Republicans went shopping for Web addresses, they found slim pickings. All possible combinations of the Democratic candidates' names had been taken by private citizens.

LiebermanGore.com is owned by Wisconsin resident Chris Demarinis, Texan Kevin Wood has GoreLieberman2000.com and www.GoreLieberman.com belongs to David Jackson of Skokie, Ill., according to public registration records.

But Jackson, a 20-year-old University of Maryland student, is giving his domain to the Gore campaign for free, the Washington Post reported in its Thursday editions.

"This is the best domain name that has a combination of these men's names, and it is the one we wanted," Ben Green, Gore's Internet director, told the newspaper.

Pete Lucas of Bridgewater, N.J., spent a pile of money -- it costs about $70 to register a single Web address -- to reserve a long list of potential sites, including GoreLieberman.org, Gore-Lieberman2000.com, Gore-Lieberman2000.org and GoreLieberman2000.org.

He also hedged his bets by grabbing GoreBayh.org and GoreKerry.com. Sens. Evan Bayh of Indiana and John Kerry of Massachusetts also were on Gore's short list of candidates.

Messages left Wednesday at Lucas's listed number were not immediately returned.

He isn't the only one who gambled on another vice presidential possibility, however.

Most of the other Bayh and Kerry possibilities are taken, and GoreMitchell.com -- for former Maine Sen. George Mitchell -- is reserved, too. But only www.GoreMitchell.com shows anything to viewers -- bouncing them to Republican George W. Bush's presidential campaign site, at www.georgewbush.com.