CAMPAIGN FLAP OVER WEB SITE: GROW UP

Even though U.S. voters will be electing a new president in 2000, the hottest race for Missourians is likely to be the contest between U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft and the man who hopes to unseat him, Gov. Mel Carnahan. Both men are strong campaigners, and both have campaign staffers who know more than a few tricks of the trade. The forecast is the Ashcroft-Carnahan matchup will be one of the hardest fought in the state's recent memory.

But who would have thought that underlings on both sides would start hurling wild-eyed accusations about Web sites with connections to both candidates? For an opening salvo in what will soon escalate into all-out war, this was lame, low and so remote from any issue voters care about that it fell into the category of dumb. Plain dumb.

It was bad enough when someone in the national Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, the hotshot group that's supposed to make sure the GOP keeps its Senate majority, made a big deal over the fact that the governor's new state Web page for children could, through a variety of links, lead to a raunchy adult chat room.

What expanded this meaningless attack into a full-fledged campaign imbroglio was first the attention it received in the news media and then the fact that it rated a counterattack by Marc Farinella, Carnahan's former chief of staff and now one of the governor's chief campaign advisers.

Farinella countered that the Web page for Ashcroft's Spirit of America PAC and his official, taxpayer-supported U.S. Senate home page both had links that would lead to sex sites and other sites dealing with militia organizations and white separatism.

Anyone who knows what a Web site is and is familiar with the Internet would know immediately how meaningless this exchange really is. A Web site, like the name implies, can best be visualized as one stop on a vast, international spider web. A link on one Web site leads to new links on other Web sites. Eventually, you can be guaranteed of coming across a link to smut. Or, for that matter, to a Bible concordance. Or anything in between.

That's the way the Web works: You follow the links that take you where you want to go. Follow enough links, and you can wind up in some pretty amazing places.

Which makes you wonder if the folks at the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee or Marc Farinella don't have just a wee bit too much free time on their hands.

There have been calls by staff members in both camps for apologies from the candidates. Grow up. Yes, those involved in these outrageous accusations owe someone an apology. They ought to start by apologizing to the candidates for whom they say they are working.

The U.S. Senate campaign holds the promise of bringing crucial national issues to the front burner for every Missourian. Let's hope trading junior-high sneers is out of everyone's system.