GORE OPS TARGET NADER'S SEX LIFE; MOVE CALLED 'DESPERATE'
**Exclusive**
Campaign 2000 took an aggressive turn this week after Gore campaign operatives began questioning Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader's sex life, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
"Look, he's never been married," one Gore operative whispered to stunned reporters earlier this week. "Who is going to be sleeping in his bed at the White House if he's elected president? I'm interested. Aren't you?"
The whispering campaign comes as Nader, 66, appears to be taking support away from Democratic hopeful Al Gore in key states.
"This is the last act of a desperate campaign!" a Nader insider said late Wednesday. "If this does not open the eyes of the American people, nothing will. These people will do anything to keep power."
A senior Gore official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, blasted the whispering campaign. "If anyone is caught doing this, they will be fired immediately!" the official told the DRUDGE REPORT from Tennessee. "Who's ever doing this should knock it off -- and knock it off now!"
The SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE advanced questions about Nader's private life after California state Assemblywoman Carole Migden raised the issue in an interview.
"Of course, I don't necessarily have that information, and I certainly don't want to say anything libelous or unreasonable," Migden said in an interview with CALIFORNIA TRIANGLE magazine. "All I'm saying is that we believe he has strong ties to the community -- and has for years -- and hasn't been forthright about it."
Nader told the CHRONICLE that he was appalled that an elected official like Migden would even bring up the subject.
"I've spoken out on gay and lesbian issues way in advance of Al Gore," he said, adding that -- unlike his Democratic opponent -- he supports both civil marriages and eliminating the "don't ask, don't tell" policy for gays in the military. "But the answer to her inference is no." Developing...