CLINTON, DOLE ADS GET DOWN 'N' DIRTY EARLY.

Byline: James Bennet The New York Times

In the kind of broadside attacks usually reserved for the waning days of summer, the Clinton campaign and the Republican Party are preparing to broadcast commercials directly assaulting the character of the opposition candidate.

With the general election more than five months away, the contest between President Clinton and Sen. Bob Dole already has acquired a sharply personal edge, honed by accusations rebounding daily - even hourly - between the candidates and between their surrogates.

On Thursday, for example, the two men had engaged in an intense cross-country exchange challenging each other's values and personal integrity, focusing on the issue of late-term abortions.

The new commercials carry that tone to the living rooms of voters who already declared themselves offended by the barrage of negative advertising during the Republican primaries. The commercials essentially trade assertions that each of the two candidates, both legendary workaholics, is shirking duties.

In a sign of the mismatched finances of the two campaigns, Clinton's commercial is supposed to be broadcast, beginning today, in markets covering half the country, while the Republican National Committee is planning a far more limited run.

The Republicans are buying a national run on the Cable News Network, and, in addition, plan to buy time on local stations in Washington, D.C., to try to influence key policy-makers and journalists. Democrat strategists contend that Republicans will try to give the impression in Washington that the advertising campaign is wider than it really is.

The advertisements are the latest in an extraordinarily early and expensive television campaign by both parties, labor unions and the Clinton campaign. Some are calling the breadth and timing of the advertising campaigns unprecedented.

``Is this unprecedented?'' asked Republican National Committee chairman Haley Barbour on Friday. ``You better believe it is.''

It is perhaps most surprising that, with Clinton in a commanding lead in the polls, his strategists would attack Dole so early.

Showing an office full of cardboard boxes packed with files, Clinton's advertisement declares that, in announcing his retirement from the Senate, Dole ``was quitting, giving up, leaving behind the gridlock he helped to create.''

``Now, all he offers are negative attacks,'' the Clinton ad says about Dole. The announcer goes on to portray Clinton as doing ``the real work'' of ``protecting Medicare'' and ``reforming welfare.''

After the advertisement was released, Dole's campaign sent reporters a copy of a letter from Clinton to Dole dated May 15. ``On behalf of a grateful America, as you retire from the Senate, I thank you for your service,'' Clinton wrote.

In a statement, Scott Reed, Dole's campaign manager, said Clinton ``should pull this ad immediately and apologize to the voters of America for the rank hypocrisy it represents.''

Democrats defended the advertisement as a reply to attacks on Clinton.

``We've seen an endless personal negative stream from the Republicans over the last two months,'' said Joseph Lockhart, the press secretary for Clinton's campaign.

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Clinton campaign needs to be aggressive, unlike the campaign of Michael Dukakis in 1988. Despite a substantial lead during the summer, Dukakis lost to George Bush.

``People are saying, `That's mean.' Maybe it is,'' the official said about the anti-Dole ad. ``But it's a nice shot across the bow. We need to poke the stick back in their face. Clinton shouldn't just lean back and enjoy it the way Dukakis did.''

Still, it is highly unusual for a sitting president to mix it up with a challenger this way - particularly at the beginning of summer. In the past, presidents have chosen to run what are called Rose Garden campaigns - holding news conferences or bill signings in the rarefied atmosphere of the White House.

Clinton campaign officials said voters are trying to make up their minds about how to interpret Dole's resignation. The advertisement, they said, will help convince them that Dole finds politicking more important than governing.

For its part, the Republican advertisement raises a sexual harassment lawsuit pending against Clinton and subtly revives accusations that he strove to avoid military service during the Vietnam War.

``Bill Clinton - he's really something,'' the advertisement declares, as the tune, ``You're in the Army Now'' is whistled in the background. ``He's now trying to avoid a sexual harassment lawsuit claiming he is on active military duty.'' The screen fills with images of Clinton golfing, hunting, riding a bicycle, and wearing sunglasses and a grin.

Mike McCurry, the president's spokesman, reviled the advertisement as ``spitball politics,'' and Democrats immediately challenged its accuracy. They said it distorts the position taken by Clinton's lawyer, Robert S. Bennett, in arguing that the lawsuit against him should be delayed until he leaves office.

At issue is a reference in Bennett's brief to the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act, which provides for the delay of civil lawsuits for active-duty service members. In a statement Wednesday, Bennett said the president is not relying on that statute.

But the advertisement, citing newspaper accounts, said ``Clinton claims, as commander in chief, he is covered under the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act.''

In a letter Friday to Barbour, Democratic National Committee chairman Donald Fowler said, ``I call on you to immediately stop airing the patently false television advertisement.''

But Barbour said he would not withdraw it. ``They didn't put any other statute in there,'' he said.

Barbour defended the timing of the Republican commercial, saying it had to be run now to reflect the news of Bennett's brief.

Previous Republican advertisements have suggested that Clinton was unreliable on balancing the budget, and Democratic advertisements have blamed congressional gridlock on Dole.

But the campaigns tacitly acknowledged that the new commercials are unusually direct in their attacks.