"He regrets that it happened," Hughes said. "He does not believe it sets a good example for our children. And he thinks it's important that we send a clear signal to our children that they should not drink and drive."

Hughes went on to question the timing of the story, which was broken Thursday evening by Fox News Channel and a Portland, Maine, Fox station. She said she finds "it interesting that in the closing days of this campaign, the Democratic candidate for governor of Maine has now admitted that he is the one who released this information to the public and to the media in the closing days of this campaign about something that happened more than 24 years ago." (The man who leaked the story, Tom Connelly, was actually the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in 1998. And? Half the negative stories we get about Gore come from the GOP, and vice versa. It's pretty standard stuff, for better or for worse.)

"I think the American people are tired of this kind of gotcha politics," Hughes said. "They're tired of this kind of last-minute dirty tricks, and I think the Democrats owe the American people an explanation."

The Gore/Lieberman campaign, meanwhile, finally commented on the scandal, in the form of an attack on the Bush campaign's tar-brush tactics. "The Bush campaign and its surrogates continue to suggest that the Gore campaign is somehow responsible for the recent disclosures about Governor Bush," according to a statement released through campaign chairman William Daley. "This charge is wrong. It is made without proof or evidence. We categorically deny any involvement. Charges to the contrary are irresponsible. Just a few minutes ago, Governor Bush said that 'a leader's responsibility is to speak plainly.' As a leader, he should tell his campaign to stop making these false charges."

"It is time for Governor Bush's campaign to stop hurling charges, and start accepting responsibility. Whatever questions remain unanswered are the responsibility of Governor Bush and his campaign, not ours," the statement concluded.

When Hughes was asked about Slater's recollection of Bush's lie, Hughes said, "That was not reported and the governor disputes that."

Several reporters cried out "It was reported!" -- since Slater's recollection was featured in a story that appeared in a November 1999 profile of Hughes in the New Republic. Hughes ignored the interruption.

She continued: "We do not believe that is accurate. The reporter later told me that he was left with the impression that the governor in fact had been involved with some sort of incident involving alcohol. And therefore I think there's some illogic in that assertion."

Whoa! See if you can follow that. Hughes is saying that since Slater thought Bush had been lying, Bush had somehow been telling the truth. This from a campaign that has repeatedly made an issue out of trust, and telling the truth, and knowing what the meaning of the word "is" is.

She's a pistol, that Hughes.

More questions. Why didn't the governor tell Slater that he had been arrested after 1968?

"The governor at the time, remember the governor has twin daughters at a very impressionable age, he had made a decision as a father that he has been very forthcoming in acknowledging that he made mistakes," Hughes said. "In acknowledging that he drank too much in the past before he quit drinking 14 years ago. But he had made a decision as a father that he did not want to set that bad example for his daughters or for any other children."

Would the daughter excuse have been OK for President Clinton to use during the Monica Lewinsky scandal? Would it have been OK if Clinton had said that he lied under oath so as not to set a bad example for Chelsea?

"The only time the governor was directly asked ... if he'd ever been arrested for drinking, and he replied, 'I do not have a perfect record,'" Hughes said, completely avoiding the question. "Throughout this campaign he has been very forthcoming with the American people that he made mistakes as a youth, that he did things as a youth that he is not proud of, and he has been very open about that."

Is a 30-year-old a youth?

No answer. Later she would say, "It was before he was married, It was before he had children."

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