Vice president raps Congress, calls for change

LAS VEGAS - Vice President Al Gore ripped into the GOP-controlled Congress for the second time this week, calling it the worst in history and urging support of Democrats this November to shift the focus from investigations to education and Social Security.

"I know a little about unfair labor practices," Gore told a rally of construction workers on Friday. "I preside over the Republican Senate. This is the worst Congress we've ever had."

On Tuesday, Gore criticized Republicans investigating the White House sex scandal, charging the GOP-led House with ignoring domestic and global troubles in its zeal to damage President Clinton.

"The only thing they can agree on is personally attacking the president," Gore said at a fund-raiser in Sacramento, Calif.

Gore denounced House Republicans for blocking money for the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund during a period of global financial turmoil, saying the GOP was consumed by the Clinton-Monica Lewinsky affair.

Gore's latest comments came at a labor rally for Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones, Nevada's Democratic gubernatorial candidate. He spoke to some 300 boisterous labor members in a union hall, then traveled to the Stardust Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, where he spoke to a similar number of party faithful at a $1,000-a-plate luncheon.

The luncheon and a private $5,000-per-person reception with Gore were expected to raise $300,000 to $400,000 for Jones, who is trailing Las Vegas businessman Kenny Guinn in the polls.

Gore noted that a switch of 11 seats would give Democrats control of the House of Representatives, where President Clinton faces possible impeachment proceedings over the Monica Lewinsky affair.

The vice president ripped the Congress over what he saw as preoccupation with the scandal, without referring to it specifically.

"We say health care, they say investigation," Gore said of the split between his party and the majority Republicans.

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