-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- London Times February 9 2000 UNITED STATES Bush 'accepted foreign donations' FROM BEN MACINTYRE IN WASHINGTON Gore catching up in national rating JOHN McCAIN'S presidential campaign accused George W. Bush yesterday of accepting thousands of dollars in foreign cash during his successful 1994 campaign for Texas Governor. It is the latest broadside in an escalating battle over campaign financing between the Republican nomination rivals. The ethics of fundraising, or lack of them, have become the defining issue of the acrimonious Republican race and, with ten days before the crucial South Carolina primary, the Arizona senator and Texas Governor are trading mutual accusations of hypocrisy and dishonesty in a contest becoming more venomous, and closer, by the hour. Mr Bush, claiming to be the only genuine reformer in the race, repeatedly attacked Mr McCain for trumpeting the cause of campaign finance reform while accepting donations from lobbyists with business before the Senate Commerce Committee, which Mr McCain chairs. For its part, the McCain campaign claimed that Haley Barbour, the former Republican National Committee chairman and now an outspoken pro-Bush lobbyist, had funnelled about $25,000 (�15,000) originating from a Hong Kong businessman into Mr Bush's 1994 campaign in Texas. Election rules bar foreign gifts to campaigns. Mr Bush's having received that money "proves that he never was a reformer," Howard Opinsky, Mr McCain's spokesman, said. According to the McCain campaign, in 1993 Mr Barbour set up a think-tank with the help of loans from the Republican National Committee. He then persuaded Ambrose Young, a Hong Kong businessman, to furnish $2.1 million as backing for a bank loan for the non-profit think-tank, the National Policy Forum, The Wall Street Journal reported. The forum used about $1.6 million of those funds to pay back the committee, which later provided hundreds of thousands of dollars for Republican campaigns. The accusations involving Mr Bush and Mr Barbour were investigated in the furore surrouding the 1996 fundraising scandals, but the US Justice Department declined to press charges. Mr Barbour has insisted that the transactions were perfectly legal. Mr Bush accused his rival of rank hypocrisy claiming, wrongly, that while Mr McCain "preaches campaign finance reform", he has received "more money than anybody" from Washington lobbyists. A few weeks ago, before Mr McCain's crushing 18-point victory in the New Hampshire primary, he was being talked of as a possible vice-presidential running-mate for Mr Bush. That notion has now vanished. "The days of smiling," an unsmiling Mr Bush said yesterday, "are over." Gore catching up in national rating George W. Bush's defeat in the New Hampshire Republican primary has hit his national rating. In December, a Washington Post-ABC News poll gave him a 16-point lead over the Democrats' Al Gore. Now the poll puts Mr Bush at 48 per cent and the Vice-President at 47. John McCain, who beat Mr Bush in New Hampshire, could defeat Mr Gore nationally by 50 per cent to 38 per cent, according to a Zogby International poll. Mr Bush holds a clear lead among Republicans, but Mr McCain is making inroads in South Carolina, New York and California. Copyright 2000 Times Newspapers Ltd. This service is provided on Times Newspapers' standard terms and conditions. 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