dent muted his previous criticism of the entertainment industry, and his quip to a union group that "Look for the Union Label" had been one of his childhood lullabies. (The song was not written until years after Mr. Gore's childhood.) Mr. Bush made a similar mistake earlier this year when he named as one of his favorite childhood books one that had not been written until he was a student at Yale. And Mr. Bush pointed to Mr. Gore's assertion that an arthritis drug used by his mother-in-law cost more than the one given to his dog. The vice president's aides later acknowledged that the figures were taken from a study of drug prices by House Democrats, not actual medical bills. Mr. Bush said Mr. Gore had used "numbers he later had to admit weren't even true, and we still don't even know the real story." Mr. Gore responded to Mr. Bush in remarks to an electrical workers' union meeting in Cleveland. "The other side said they wanted to talk about the issues, but that didn't seem to last very long," Mr. Gore said. "With our whole future at stake this is no time for personal attacks, which is why I'll never make any." But one of Mr. Gore's aides, Douglas Hattaway, pointed to the ties that Mr. Bush and his running mate, Dick Cheney, have had to the oil industry. "The Texas oil ticket is on the defensive because they've been making excuses for the oil industry while Al Gore is fighting to cut oil prices," Mr. Hattaway said. He stood by Mr. Grochach: Gore's assertion that he had been involved in discussions about the oil reserve since its inception. He said while it was authorized by law in 1975, the reserve was in its early stages in 1977, when Mr. Gore was serving on a House subcommittee on energy. Mr. Bush, who has called for more domestic oil exploration, sought today to turn the focus to the country's increased dependence on foreign oil. "Americans are understandably worried about the high and rising prices of gas and home heating oil,...
