The Republican National Committee -- with the Bush camp's blessing -- launched the "Al Gore News Conference Watch" on Wednesday. Opening count: 46 days without one, dating back to Feb. 19 in Springfield, Mass.

In that interval, the Justice Department has begun an investigation of missing e-mails at the White House, some of which related to Gore. The vice president's office has also acknowledged contacting the IRS on a union tax matter. And Gore has broken ranks with President Clinton over 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez.

While conceding that Gore regularly grants one-on-one interviews, Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said those are easier to control. "News conferences are a way to see how fast you are on your feet."

Bush holds almost daily "availabilities" while campaigning. No subject is off limits, although the Texas governor sometimes takes a pass on issues with which he is unfamiliar.

"Maybe Bush needs the practice," responded Gore spokesman Doug Hattaway.

He said Gore talks to reporters "virtually every single day," albeit in an individual setting. On Tuesday it was USA Today, Knight Ridder, "Lifetime Live" and the "Today" show.

"The campaign is trying to have as much interaction as possible with voters, and that's an important way to get the message out, so we want to focus our efforts there as well," Hattaway said.

Sometimes, an interview can cause problems for Gore.

On Tuesday, his campaign's press office went into overdrive after Gore told "Today's" Matt Lauer that Juan Miguel Gonzalez, Elian's father, should be allowed to take his son home to Cuba if the father comes to the United States and declares that's what he wants.

Such a pronouncement by the father, Gore said, would be "determinative" regarding custody of Elian, who was rescued off Florida after his mother and 10 others drowned after fleeing Cuba.

Aides rushed to point out that Gore also told Lauer that family courts typically have the final say in such cases. The campaign followed with a statement clarifying that Gore wanted a family court to settle the case.

Political analysts see an irony in Bush highlighting Gore's dearth of news conferences.

"Bush is taking his cues from the problems with his own campaign," said Wayne Fields, an English professor at Washington University in St. Louis. Fields wrote a book about presidential rhetoric, "Union of Words."

"People liked McCain's accessibility," and that caused problems for Bush, the professor said. "Now he's hoping that Gore's lack of accessibility will cause problems" for the vice president.

Early in his presidential campaign, Bush was criticized for inaccessibility. He traveled separately from the press corps and stayed in different hotels. He also skipped debates and faced questions about his nimbleness after he stammered through a foreign policy pop quiz from a TV reporter.

John McCain, the Arizona senator and Bush's closest Republican challenger, drew rave reviews for holding rolling, daylong news conferences aboard his campaign bus, the "Straight Talk Express."

Bob Lichter, president of the Center for Media and Public Affairs, a nonpartisan media analyst, cited a difficult 1997 news conference as an explanation for Gore's reluctance to meet with reporters en masse.

Amid a flurry of questions about fund-raising calls he made from the White House during the last presidential election, the vice president held a hastily arranged news conference at the White House. He insisted there was "no controlling legal authority" preventing his actions.

Aides conceded the event was a public relations disaster. To this day, Bush mocks Gore's phrase on the campaign trail.

Lichter said: "Gore has already gotten burned for his choice of words and some of his claims, like he invented the Internet, so it's understandable that he would avoid similar settings."