Mideast Crises Affect Presidential Race

“I’ve been following events in the Middle East,” Bush said Thursday. “It’s time for our nation to speak with one voice.”

But as he criticized what he argued was an over-reliance by the administration on foreign oil, Bush opened himself up to claims that he is trying capitalize on the turmoil.

“The current crisis in the Middle East underscores the danger of American reliance on [Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein’s oil,” he told supporters in Pontiac, Mich.

The Republican candidate did not criticize — and aides insist he will not criticize — the administration’s handling of the West Bank violence or the attack on the USS Cole. But the Gore campaign seized on the remark, claiming that Bush was making political hay out of the situation in the Middle East.

“It is not helpful for Governor Bush to play politics with the current crisis,” said Gore spokesman Douglas Hattaway.

“The governor is simply stating fact,” said Bush spokesman Ray Sullivan. “The lack of an energy policy and our over reliance on foreign energy, particularly Iraqi oil, is an important security question and a legitimate question to discuss.”

For the most part, however, the man campaigning to “end the Clinton-Gore era,” now finds himself in the awkward position of rubber-stamping the administration’s actions.

“It’s important for our administration to continue to seek calm and peace in the Middle East,” he said on Friday.

And when Gore rushed back to Washington after the explosion in Yemen, returning to the White House for the first time in four months, Bush campaign officials called the action “appropriate.”

The vice president left the campaign trail and returned to the White House again Friday afternoon in order to take part in a National Security Council meeting.

“Al Gore is part of the foreign policy team and it is important at this time that he be part of that team,” said Hattaway. “That’s the bottom line.”