Vice-president Al Gore announced another administration initiative for the 21st century yesterday as President Clinton tried to hold on to his job for the rest of this century.
The contrasting focuses of Mr Clinton and Mr Gore underscored the different political tracks the two are suddenly travelling.
Mr Clinton is seeking to avoid a Senate impeachment conviction that would drive him from office while Mr Gore is busy positioning himself to be elected his successor next year.
In the previous seven days alone, Mr Gore, front-runner for the 2000 Democratic presidential nomination, had:
gone to Iowa to announce that hog farmers will get $50 million in direct cash payments, and to say another $80 million will be spent to help eradicate a hog disease and reduce an oversupply of the livestock.
announced the administration is proposing a new financing tool that would generate $9.5 billion in bond authority for investments by state and local governments in a cleaner environment and open space.
announced the administration is proposing $8.3 billion to ease traffic congestion and improve public transit.
hosted a national jobs summit where he unveiled a $60 million administration plan, plus a variety of tax breaks, to better educate needed high-skilled workers.
said the administration will ask Congress for an additional $1.6 billion in grants to help pump new life and development into 20 selected poor urban and rural areas.
On Thursday Mr Gore hosted a global conference on "reinventing government" where he announced new steps to improve federal employee-worker relations, cut red tape and better serve the public.
"What he is trying to do is push the Democratic agenda, which does two very important things," said StuRothenberg of the Rothenberg Political Report. "It reinforces the notion the ClintonGore administration isn't crippled by impeachment and that Al Gore is a person of power."
In doing so, Mr Rothenberg said, Mr Gore has also helped Mr Clinton. The Vice-President has promoted Mr Clinton's policies without defending the President's personal conduct.
Mr Gore's high-profile drive is drawing mixed reviews.
"He is blatantly going around the country, at taxpayers' expense, campaigning and taking credit for things he shouldn't be taking credit for," scoffed Senator Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican.
Mr Hatch was particularly irked that Mr Gore went to Iowa, site of the first 2000 presidential caucus, to aid hog farmers.
"He made like he was the benefactor of those dollars," which were actually approved last year by the Republican-led Congress, said Mr Hatch. "A lot of us around here don't like what he is doing."
"It's only going to get worse," predicted Senator John McCain of Arizona, who is considered likely to seek the 2000 Republican presidential nomination.
Mr Gore has been among the most loyal and engaged vice-presidents in history, working shoulder to shoulder with Mr Clinton on a matters ranging from free trade to health care.
Yet now he must keep some distance from Mr Clinton in order to avoid ending up stained by the scandal that will for ever mark Mr Clinton.
"The Vice-President has a very tricky high-wire act," said Dr James Thurber, head of the American University's Centre for Congressional and Presidential Studies.
"He wants to be loyal to the President while also being concerned about his own image," Dr Thurber said. "So far, I think he is playing it as well as he can."
Mr Lonnie Taylor, chief lobbyist for the US Chamber of Commerce, said: "Al Gore is making overtures to different groups, and that's what you do when you run for president."
Mr Taylor said business has some problems with Mr Gore. "There is a general concern that Gore would bring tougher environmental regulation as president and that he has long been close with union leaders," the business lobbyist said.
At his national jobs summit on Tuesday, Mr Gore brought together business and labour leaders. And he made no mention of the Senate trial of Mr Clinton. Instead, he stuck to his own script, saying the US must help provide more high-skilled workers for industries facing shortages.
The Vice-President invoked the President's name during the forum, but only to credit him for a robust economy and for new efforts to train workers. "We're just beginning," Mr Gore said.
AFP adds:
Americans appear to be less concerned about Mr Clinton than about the weather or the education of their children. Mr Clinton's Senate impeachment trial ranked a lowly 12th among issues that Americans say Congress should make priorities, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll published this week.
For more than 90 per cent of the respondents, education, retirement and health insurance were the top concerns. Just 39 per cent believe the trial that opened Thursday should dominate the legislative agenda.
In a nation with a robust economy and where crime rates are falling, "nobody believes that big issues are hanging in the balance here," said Dr Alan Lichtman, a presidential specialist at the American University in Washington.
Mr Clinton's public approval ratings remain high, although 79 per cent say he effectively lied under oath to conceal his affair with the former White House intern, Ms Monica Lewinsky.