New Century, Old Grudges

          PHILADELPHIA -- O.K. Now we're in business.

          After an icky evening of Republican
          kissy-face and blaxploitation ("Affirmative
          Action, the Musical"), Poppy unleashed Chiang!

          Unleashing Chiang, in the loopy Bush family
          patois used in golf and tennis, means giving the ball a good whack.

          After a week of President Clinton taunting W., saying that the Republican
          candidate's message was merely "My Daddy was president," Daddy lost it.

          "And if he continues that, then I'm going to tell the nation what I think
          about him as a human being and a person," the former president threatened
          on NBC's "Today."

          Our summer of torpid politics suddenly came alive with the freaky
          spectacle of two presidents trash-talking. The race turns out to be what we
          thought it was all along: President Bush vs. President Clinton.

          George Senior is determined to prove once and for all that Bill Clinton is a
          tacky hick who defiled the presidency. Bill Clinton is determined to prove
          once and for all that George Senior is an irrelevant aristocrat who thinks
          the presidency is a family heirloom.

          Two intensely competitive chief executives, who had been trying not to
          meddle too much in the campaigns of their protégés, bolting off the
          reservation in a bid for vindication.

          George Senior is fighting for the second term he feels he was gypped out
          of by Bill Clinton. And Bill Clinton is fighting for the third term he needs to
          launder his legacy.

          W. and Al are alternately bystanders and stand-ins in the big rematch.

          It is as though the tape of the '92 election, on pause all these years, has
          started rolling again.

          The presidential hissy fit is driven by class rage. Edith Wharton would have
          savored this drama of manners.

          The Bushes have been privately steaming that Gore/Clinton have not
          abided by Marquess of Queensberry rules, allowing the Republicans to
          enjoy their nomination party without any Democrats throwing a punch.

          Bush Père believes his manners toward his successor have been
          impeccable, and that he has been discreet out of loyalty to the office.

          "Who's been more gracious and charitable to Bill Clinton, even during
          Lewinsky?" asked the former president's old friend Alan Simpson, the
          former Wyoming senator.

          So the Bushes felt the gentlemanly rules of order were broken over the last
          week when the Democrats put out an ad attacking Dick Cheney's
          conservative record and two more attacking W. on health care and the
          environment, and when Bill Clinton repeatedly mocked W. as a coddled
          daddy's boy at fund-raisers.

          "The country was in the ditch," Mr. Clinton said in Boston last Friday,
          talking about '92, comparing the Bush White House to a ditzy "Wayne's World."

          Nobody gave Mr. Clinton, who never knew his own father and who had to
          stand up to an abusive, alcoholic stepfather, a solid gold key to success.

          And he clearly thinks Al Gore, another regent raised to be president by a
          famous political father, is not up to the challenge of gutting the Bushes on
          the entitlement issue.

          It has to be galling to Mr. Clinton that Americans don't seem inclined to
          reward his vice president for the purring economy. And he is surely fed up
          with the Republicans acting as if his two terms were merely Bushus Interruptus.

          The remarkable thing is that this class war has caused everyone to reverse roles.

          In '92, W. was the vindictive one who lashed out when his father was criticized.
          Now dad has taken junior's role.

          And while it is usually vice presidents who serve as hatchet men, now Bill
          Clinton does that for his vice president.

          Even though Mr. Simpson says that the Bushes avoided publicly criticizing
          Mr. Clinton about Monica Lewinsky, that is in fact the subtext of W.'s
          campaign -- restoring "honor and dignity" to the White House.

          Mr. Clinton thinks a rejection of Mr. Gore would be a ratification of the
          Bushes' contention that he sullied the White House. The president can also
          see that it is hard for Al Gore to attack, because even people who agree
          with Mr. Gore find him insufferable on the attack. W. and Mr. Gore will
          probably keep campaigning, but we all know it's not about them anymore.
          Maybe it never was.