A STUNNING PLAYBOY MODEL has unleashed the opening salvo in a campaign against
 George W. Bush - claiming she had a torrid 18-month affair with him that ended last June.
 Political experts say her sordid tale is just the beginning of a campaign that
 will be aimed at the front-runner during his run for the White House.

 "He's going to be vulnerable all the way up to the election," Dr. Larry Sabato, professor of
 government and foreign affairs at the University of Virginia, told The ENQUIRER.

 Former Watergate conspirator and radio talk show host G. Gordon Liddy agreed.
"You look for a candidate's vulnerabilities -- and Gov. Bush has made statements like,
 'I was young and foolish' that give credibility to a story of sexual promiscuity."

 Already the Internet is awash with rumors about Bush's personal life,
 including allegations of womanizing.

 However, the Republican contender is a genuine family man, say  insiders.
 He married his wife Laura in November 1977, after knowing her 90 days.
 But with less than eight months to go to the 2000 election, the first big sexual broadside
 has been fired at the Bush bandwagon by 35-year-old Tammy Phillips,
 a partner in a gym in Carrollton, Tex.

 Tammy is a former stripper, who began dancing in clubs when she was only 14.
 She claims she was introduced to Gov. Bush by her uncle, a prominent Republican,
 in early December 1997 during a political function at a hotel in Midland, Tex.

 "I was wearing a tiny miniskirt -- and it was instant combustion," she told The ENQUIRER.
 Tammy alleges that she and Gov. Bush made passionate love that very first day.
 And her story becomes even more lurid.

 The next day, she says, the Texas Governor called her cell  phone and made a date for
 a few days later -- asking her to wear the same red panties she'd worn when they first met.

 This time their rendezvous took place in the unlikely setting of the men's room at a Best Western
 in Houston, claims the torrid temptress. After it was over, she says, they went their separate ways
 -- with Gov. Bush allegedly taking her red panties with him as a sweet reminder.

 Six other similarly clandestine liaisons took place before their
 final one in San Diego last June, asserts Tammy.

 She stops short of claiming a great romance with the governor.
 "It was simply sex," she says. "It was the cheapest relationship you can imagine."

 Tammy -- who posed for Playboy lingerie and swimsuit issues between 1989 and 1992 -- told
 The ENQUIRER she was holding the "smoking gun" proof of the relationship:
 a handwritten note from Gov. Bush in which he mentions the red panties.

 Asked to produce the Bush note, Tammy would only say, "Not yet!"