Republican Governors Flex Their Fundraising Muscle

One man with a cane says, "Can't we support stem cell research?"

"Why did we let down Katrina victims? Why won't Congress do anything?"

A male narrator says, "Okay, it's kind of ridiculous to think you're ever going to get an answer from this bush," with the camera on the green bush. Then a close-up picture of President Bush is displayed. "But it's also kind of ridiculous to think you're going to get an answer from this one."

In orange letters, "Demand Answers" and "Vote for Change" appear, with the September Fund noted at the bottom.

John Geer, a professor at Vanderbilt University who specializes in political advertising, questioned whether the ad would be effective. "It raises lots of good questions, but equating President Bush with a shrub -- it's pretty hard-hitting, but I'm not sure so many people will want to think of the president, whether they agree or disagree, as a plant," he said.

McCain vs. Clinton and Clinton

The verbal sparring between Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) took a malicious turn yesterday, forcing the New York senator to apologize for words attributed to an unnamed adviser who had denigrated McCain to the New York Times.

Earlier in the week, McCain had come to President Bush's defense after Clinton challenged the administration's record on North Korea. McCain said that Democrats should not blame the Bush administration and that President Bill Clinton's administration failed in North Korea.

Someone in the Clinton camp raised the ante, telling columnist Maureen Dowd that in defending Bush, McCain, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, looked "similar to the way he did on those captive tapes from Hanoi, where he recited the names of his crew mates."

That remark, published yesterday, appeared to resurrect some of the worst moments of the 2000 presidential primaries, when a whisper campaign against McCain suggested that he might be mentally unstable because of his POW experience. The quotation drew a swift rebuke from McCain's chief adviser, John Weaver.

"It goes without saying there are no expectations that the Clintons, their spokespeople and their allies know much about Vietnam," he said in a statement. "But for one of Senator Clinton's aides to lie about John McCain's time in a North Vietnamese prison camp is beyond disappointing. There was no such tape recording, though he did once 'give up' the starting lineup of the Green Bay Packers while under extreme duress."

Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson distanced the senator from her unnamed adviser's remarks, saying, "These comments are reprehensible, and they in no way reflect Senator Clinton's feelings."

Clinton reached McCain by phone and apologized, Weaver said, adding that McCain accepted the apology and considered the matter over.

Staff writers Dan Balz and Kari Lydersen contributed to this report.