A fund-raiser at Hugh Hefner's Playboy mansion during the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles next week is causing panic in the Gore campaign which is dreading being associated with Playboy bunnies as it tries to airbrush Monica Lewinsky from the record of the Clinton-Gore years.
The Democratic Congresswoman, Ms Loretta Sanchez, who has organised the fund-raiser is being threatened with dismissal from her post as a co-chair of the Democratic National Committee if the event goes ahead. A Playboy Enterprises spokesman has said the Hefner mansion is "more like a five-star hotel than Sodom and Gomorrah".
The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights has also called on Vice-President Gore to cancel the frolics at Hefner's six-acre estate with its notorious skinny-dipping grotto. The president of the league, Mr William Donahue, said Mr Gore has "the ability to spike this event".
The unhappy Mr Gore has spent weeks trying to distance himself from the fund-raiser which will benefit Hispanic Unity 2000, a political-action committee for Ms Sanchez, indicating he strongly disapproves of the event and has no intention of attending.
Congressman Patrick Kennedy, son of Senator Edward Kennedy, who is chief fund-raiser for the reelection of Democrats in the House of Representatives, is also expressing horror at the Playboy mansion event which he sees as insulting to women.
The Playboy people are mad with Mr Gore and Mr Kennedy whom they accuse of "hypocrisy". Both Hugh Hefner and his daughter Christie, head of Playboy Enterprises, have contributed $1,500 to the Gore presidential campaign.
An unhappy Gore spokesman has said: "Just because the campaign accepts a donation, doesn't mean we condone what goes on in their house." But what will go on in the Playboy mansion that night apart from the handing over of cheques? Ms Sanchez has hired former Playboy "centerfolds" to show her guests around but the playmates will wear cocktail dresses according to Mr Bill Farley, spokesman for Playboy Enterprises. Mr Farley says: "The Playboy mansion for a political event is not Sodom and Gomorrah. It is in many respects like a five-star hotel."
Ms Sanchez is refusing to back down in the face of threats from the Gore campaign. Her spokeswoman says "her priorities for the fall are electing Al Gore, taking back the House and registering and empowering Latino voters".
Mr Gore may need all those Latino votes. His once comfortable lead over Governor George Bush in the vital state of California has been whittled away, according to a new poll. The Public Policy Institute poll shows Mr Gore with 40 per cent of likely voters, Mr Bush 37 per cent and the Green Party candidate, Mr Ralph Nader, 8 per cent.