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Shortly after 9 a.m. EST, Gore popped into a cyber cafe in the Dupont Circle area of Northwest Washington, a neighborhood usually known for an altogether different kind of flaming. There the vice president drank a cup of coffee and sent out what the Bradley campaign will no doubt regard as spam.

Wearing his now trademark shiny black cowboy boots, Gore sent a friendly reminder to Bradley about what he deemed an "oversight" in the Bradley campaign's health-care proposal. But the electronic communiqué was hardly a heartfelt policy exchange among Democrats about health-care policy. It was the latest in a series of media-propelled shots Gore has taken at the surprisingly strong Democratic challenger.

After eons of not even mentioning Bradley by name, Gore started coming at him a few months ago, challenging the former New York Knick's health-care proposal as a budget-buster that would imperil Medicare. Wednesday's flame marked nothing new in substance, but indicated that there is no media venue into which Gore will not tread to muck up the one man standing between him and the Democratic nomination.

"Dear Bill," Gore wrote in an e-mail addressed to campaign@billbradley.com and sent from agore@gorenet.com. "I've read with interest your campaign's recent comments about Medicare and our respective health care proposals, and I've noticed what appears to be an oversight. And as a result, I'm sending this e-mail to ask you for a clarification ... to clear up this question about your proposal."

Gore said he'd reviewed Bradley's Web site and public comments, and asked if Bradley had any plans to "reserve any of the [budget] surplus to extend the life of the Medicare trust fund." As "experts" have said that the Medicare trust fund will need greater funding, which Gore has proposed doing, Gore asked, "What specific measures do you propose to compensate for not dedicating any of the surplus to strengthen the Medicare trust fund?"

"As you know," Gore wrote, "we face a critical challenge with the retirement of the baby boomers and a doubling of the size of the Medicare program over the next 30 years."

Gore then spoke into a digital camera delivering a similar question to Bradley in a recorded message sent to Bradley via e-mail as well.

Eric Hauser, spokesman for the Bradley campaign, said he had yet to see the e-mail, and would not comment until he had reviewed its contents.

"I've challenged [Bradley] to debate these issues, I want a debate every week on a different topic," Gore explained to reporters after his e-mail stunt. "But he hasn't been willing to accept that, so this is kind of an e-debate."

Gore said that further e-debates "would tend to illuminate the policy differences and would tend to sharpen both campaigns. I mean, campaigns can get away with murder if they just deal with vague generalities."

The general geniality that has characterized the scramble for the Republican nomination in the past few weeks stands as a stark contrast with the meowing and hissing coming from the sack in which Bradley and Gore are scrapping. The campaign strategy for this is quite simple: The Gore team knows that its man has 50 arrows in his image while Bradley began his campaign posturing himself as an above-the-fray apolitical guru-type. By throwing issue-related mud at Bradley, Gore staffers hope to bring Bradley's public persona into greater dirt-equity with that of their sullied boss.

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