The fund-raising scandal expands like a giant tumbleweed, picking up more and more dirt as it rolls along the potholed streets of the American capital.
While Republicans whistle the theme tune from The Good, The Bad And The Ugly off-camera, Democrats run for cover into the nearest saloon at the mere suggestion that fall guy John Huang is passing nearby.
But who's the baddie in the black outfit and cowboy hat who just rode into view, dismounted from his steed and emerged from the shadows? Why, if it isn't Albert Gore.
The one man in town everybody assumed sped around on a white horse, always above the political fray, has now been revealed (depending on who you believe) to be just as down and dirty as the rest of the Washingtonian rabble who are forever in search of a fistful of dollars. The vice-president, who even Republicans thought was the sheriff, has just been renamed 'solicitor-in-chief', because of the scores of phone calls he made from the White House last year to raise millions for he and President Bill Clinton's re-election bid.
Not only has the highly charged story by the Washington Post's star Watergate reporter Bob Woodward sullied Al Gore's Mr Clean image, it also has raised the suggestion that he might even have broken the law.
That law dates back to 1876, when there really were cowboys in places other than Washington. Under the statute, it is forbidden for federal officials to solicit political donations on federal government property. That the law was originally intended to prevent officials intimidating their employees into campaign donations has not stopped the White House's tireless enemies from grasping this latest opportunity to keep the fund-raising scandal simmering.
Whatever the merits of the accusations against the vice-president, their real value to Republicans lies in the fact they now have ammunition with which to target the man who everyone assumes will be the main contender for the White House in 2000.
