Presidential Candidate Mike Gravel Questions President Clinton's Shift on Connecticut Senate Race

WASHINGTON, July 21 - Former United States Senator Mike Gravel, democratic candidate for president of the United States, on the eve of making his first campaign visit to Connecticut, said he was surprised to hear that President Clinton intended to campaign for incumbent senator Joe Lieberman.

Sen. Gravel said, "It was just about a month ago in Manchester, New Hampshire where I met the President at the Athens Restaurant and listened to him speak to an audience of the Democratic Party activists. He pointedly referred to Senator Lieberman as the only Democratic Senator in the Senate who supports President Bush's policy of preemptive war. The tone was accusatory and clearly not that of someone who was about to make an endorsement."

The senator continued, "As for myself, I do not believe that Joe Lieberman has earned another term in the U.S. Senate. Aside from being the poster boy of a do-nothing Congress, he has allied himself with the President and his clique of dishonest and discredited war mongering 'neocons' who have dishonored themselves and our nation. They have led us into a tragic and unnecessary conflict that can only rightfully be called 'Bush's War.' Next week, I plan to carry my anti-war, anti-Lieberman, government structural reform message that empowers the American people throughout the state of Connecticut and we will 'Let the People Decide.'"