Debates, debates, debates

With less than a month before Election Day, campaigns are heavily into debate season. Social Security, tax cuts and health care are among the most prominent issues that keep coming up, while the White House sex scandal-at least thus far-is seldom being mentioned.

Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, D-Ill., "largely played the role of challenger" in her Oct. 4 face-off with state Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, a Republican, according to the Arlington Heights, Ill., Daily Herald. Behind in the polls, she portrayed her re-election battle as "nothing less than a contest over who will dictate the direction of our government. . . . The checks and balances of our government are at risk in the effort to provide a veto-proof, right-wing majority in the United States Senate. The stakes in this election are very high." (10/5)

The Chicago Tribune reported that Moseley-Braun accused Fitzgerald of "flip-flops" on gun control, Social Security and managed health care in hopes of moderating his conservative positions. Fitzgerald responded by saying that the state needs a U.S. senator who can exercise "good judgment," and hammered the incumbent for her visits to the late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha. (10/5)

Personal Foul

During a debate in the Illinois race for governor, Rep. Glenn W. Poshard, D-Ill., lashed out at 22 years of GOP governors, arguing that Illinois Secretary of State George Ryan would carry on a scandal-ridden reign of government "for the insiders." For his part, Ryan accused Poshard of breaking a pledge not to take special-interest money. But Poshard, who trails in the polls, kept up the attack on Republican administrations: "We have prisons that are run by gangs, scandals from the welfare department, a secretary of state's office that can't root out corruption, and a government of the insiders." (Chicago Tribune, 10/6)

The Arlington Heights Daily Herald reported on debate references to a Poshard television ad blaming Ryan for the widely reported traffic deaths of six children at the hands of a truck driver. "But for George Ryan allowing an unqualified driver to obtain a commercial driver's license, six children would still be alive today," Poshard said during the debate. Ryan asked Poshard "to pull the ad," noting that former Sen. Paul Simon, D-Ill., and former Democratic Illinois Senate President Phil Rock "both said the ad went beyond even the standards for negative campaigning." (10/4)

Taxing Semantics

Debates in Kentucky's Senate race showed how "Social Security and other pocketbook issues continued to be the main flash points," reports The (Louisville) Courier-Journal. Democratic Rep. Scotty Baesler and Republican Rep. Jim Bunning "repeatedly questioned each other's voting record in Congress, beginning with Bunning's recent votes to set aside" 90 percent of the federal budget surplus for Social Security and use the rest to cover the cost of tax cuts. Baesler "noted that Bunning had called for setting aside all the surplus for Social Security first, then cutting taxes after the program is reformed, as Baesler voted to do." Baesler: "When you say first, you mean first. It's easy to say in an election year, 'Let's go give a tax break' . . . I've kept my word. Jim has not kept his." Bunning replied: "It's a question of semantics, Scotty." Bunning said the bill he supported more than doubled the amount that Clinton wanted to set aside for Social Security. (10/5)

Standing Insults

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted that Sen. Christopher S. "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., and Democratic challenger state Attorney General Jay Nixon "made one point clear" in their Oct. 4 televised debate: "They can't stand each other." Bond and Nixon "ignored the questions and interrupted each other's answers. Each accused the other of being a hypocrite, an opportunist and a liar unfit for the office." Although the questions posed by reporters dealt with such issues as the environment, Social Security and health care, "most of the responses focused on personal matters." Bond, who is divorced, accused Nixon of promoting a public request from a local lawyer that both candidates swear in an affidavit that they've never committed adultery. Nixon blasted Bond for a campaign flier that says Nixon "would disembowel his own grandmother" for a headline. (10/5)

Bayhpartisan

Former Indiana Gov. Evan Bayh, a Democrat, debated his Republican foe for the U.S. Senate, Fort Wayne Mayor Paul Helmke, and they disagreed on tax cuts and Social Security. But the Indianapolis Star noted they were "both in the running" to be "best friend" to Sen. Richard G. Lugar, R-Ind. Both invoked Lugar's name repeatedly during the Oct. 2 debate. Helmke: "Give Dick Lugar a Republican partner in the U.S. Senate." Bayh, son of former Democratic U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh, said Lugar is "a good example of the kind of bipartisanship" he wants to bring to Washington. For Helmke, "the debate was his first of only two chances to debate the better-known and much-better-financed Bayh. At one point, he urged voters to pay attention, saying the election was too important to be left to 30-second commercials." Bayh "used two words over and over to keep Hoosier voters comfortable with him-'bipartisanship' and 'conservative.' " (10/3)

Unruly or Enthusiastic?

Sen. Harry M. Reid, D-Nev., and Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev., held a second, "more gentlemanly" debate on Oct. 4, following a "hard-edged" display a week before in front of "a vocal crowd of seniors," according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Still, they managed to "point out their differences on taxes, health care and Social Security." Outside the television studio where the debate was held, hundreds of Reid and Ensign supporters were "screaming and yelling," forcing the candidates and their wives to "run a gantlet of supporters and opponents." Ensign and his wife, Darlene, paused among their backers to pray before the start of the debate. After the debate, Ensign described the crowd as raucous and unruly. He said Reid's supporters chased him and Darlene to their car. Reid and his wife, Landra, also had to push through the rival shouting crowds, but Reid said it was "energizing" to see his supporters' enthusiasm. (10/5)

Trauma? Chew on It

One of the few debates to address Clinton's sex scandal brought only "cautious assessments" from Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and his Democratic challenger, state Sen. Paul Feleciano Jr.

Brownback, "who has urged Clinton to resign and spare the nation" the trauma of impeachment, noted that legal scholars "are divided on the issue. . . . This is one I think we need to chew on and consider for a long time before we decide whether it reaches that level." Feleciano called the president's actions "disgraceful," but said Clinton is entitled to due process. "Unlike my opponent, who played up to the cameras in Washington [calling on Clinton to resign], I will reserve judgment until I see the evidence. We need to determine what is an impeachable offense." (Associated Press, 10/4)

Splash, Splash

The (Phoenix) Arizona Republic reported that former Phoenix Mayor Paul Johnson, a Democrat,"came out swinging" in his bid to unseat Arizona Gov. Jane Dee Hull, a Republican.

In an exchange that "overshadowed the rest of the debate," Johnson claimed that Hull "would give up" the state's water rights "in exchange for contributions from Las Vegas developers," which Hull denied. Johnson insisted that during a Las Vegas fund-raiser, Hull "received thousands of dollars from developers and others who want to bring more Colorado River water" to Nevada.

Johnson: "Mrs. Hull ought to give that money back. . . . She ought to tell us she is not going to give one drop of Arizona water to Nevada." Hull: "I am extremely offended." Johnson "offered no proof that Hull had made any promises to share" Arizona's water with Nevada. Hull, after the debate: "I'm not going to give up water rights. . . . My integrity isn't for sale." (10/5)

Sexorcist and the Stoop

During the Oct. 5 opening monologue of The Tonight Show, host Jay Leno showed a video depicting Clinton as demonically obsessed with sex, while a Kenneth Starr look-alike portrayed the "sexorcist" charged with ridding the president of his demons.

The narrator of the spoof said, "From the master of horror, Kenneth Starr, comes a new tale of terror . . . the `Sexorcist.' " Starr, standing over the bed: "I command thee demon president, begone!" The actor playing Clinton, made up to resemble Linda Blair in The Exorcist, rises from the bed saying, "Where are the girls? I want to get it on!" (NBC, 10/5)

Not to be outdone, CBS talk show host David Letterman also showed a Clinton spoof video. It had Clinton "scoring" with women after major events. To celebrate passage of NAFTA, "he had sex with a Mexican schoolteacher on the White House stoop. . . . More recently, President Clinton dropped by the editing room, where this videotape was being prepared. While there, he scored with our tape editor, assistant director; then he went to my home and had sex with my wife. Bill Clinton, good riddance to that home-wrecking son of a bitch." (Late Show, 10/5)