The Taoiseach has reacted angrily to Mr John Bruton's attempt to link him to the sleaze allegations arising from the Haughey era, accusing the Fine Gael leader of twisting the truth.
However, the Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, joined the criticism of Mr Ahern, accusing him of an "intemperate" response designed to help him escape from accountability in relation to claims of corruption.
As the Tipperary South by-election campaign got under way yesterday, Mr Ahern and the two main Opposition leaders exchanged political charges verging on abuse. Mr Ahern attacked Labour as "anti-business" and accused Mr Bruton of trying to "throw the dirt" in a "one-line agenda to become Taoiseach".
This was in response to Mr Bruton's demands on Mr Ahern, in an interview in yesterday's Irish Times, to explain his longtime support for Mr Charles Haughey.
However, in a sharp response Mr Bruton repeated his demand for Mr Ahern to explain his past support for Mr Charles Haughey, saying he and other former Hau ghey supporters in Fianna Fail had "a political responsibility to explain their political misjudgement before they can close the book on that era".
In a strong reaction to Mr Bruton's interview, the Taoiseach claimed the Fine Gael leader had twisted the truth concerning his relationship with the late Fianna Fail leader, Mr Jack Lynch.
To suggest, as Mr Bruton had, that he was involved in overthrowing Mr Lynch was an "outright disgrace", said Mr Ahern at a press conference to open his party's by-election campaign. "It's sad that a once-important party like Fine Gael are just relegated down to really throwing muck and have no policies," he said.
Mr Bruton said yesterday his charge in relation to Mr Ahern's behaviour in 1979 was that he supported the installation of Mr Haughey as Taoiseach against his constituency colleague, Mr George Colley. However, in his Irish Times interview, Mr Bruton claimed Mr Ahern was "amongst the Fianna Fail TDs who in 1979 overthrew Jack Lynch".
Mr Bruton said yesterday he was challenging Mr Ahern's political judgment, not his integrity. He said the Taoiseach had supported the expulsion of Mr Desmond O'Malley from the party and "signed huge numbers of blank cheques, as co-signatory of the Fianna Fail account, for Mr Haughey's use.
"Pretending to be the wounded victim of charges that have not even been made, while ignoring those that have been made, does not reassure the public that the current Fianna Fail leadership have really come to terms with the past," Mr Bruton said yesterday. "Bertie Ahern had a choice at all of these times and must ac count for the choices he made."
Mr Ahern said the Fine Gael leader had stated in the interview that he had no evidence of dishonesty concerning the Taoiseach, "but he wouldn't give me a clean bill of health. I just think it's not the answer I'd give if somebody asked me about him. He seems to have a one-line agenda to become Taoiseach and that's to try and throw the dirt at Bertie."
What annoyed him more than anything else, however, was Mr Bruton's "revisionist account" of the Taoiseach's relationship with Mr Lynch. "I got all my breaks in politics early on from Jack Lynch. It was Jack Lynch who added me to the Fianna Fail ticket 23 years ago. That allowed me to be elected and I supported him strongly until he retired.
"So I think to try and put a slant that I had something to do with bringing him down when I was only a young member of the party is an outright disgrace . . . Of course, he is working on the basis that people don't remember 1977."
Mr Ahern said he had answered all the questions concerning his relationship with Mr Haughey in an interview with Olivia O'Leary on Network 2 last week. Fine Gael was "very upset", he claimed, that he had dealt with the issues comprehensively.
Mr Bruton's comments disappointed him but they did not upset him, and he would continue to deal with the issues people were interested in, such as housing, education and the state of the economy.
Mr Bruton repeated yesterday in relation to Mr Ahern that "Charles Haughey's finances may not have been known to him, but Charles Haughey's method of government, including the bypassing of cabinet, was very well known to Bertie Ahern".
Mr Quinn said Mr Ahern was "fond of stating that anybody who questions his ineptitude in handling certain types of issues like the Burke affair or his involvement in the management of the Fianna Fail party leader's allowance under Haughey, on which he misled the Dail, is engaged in `personal' politics. It is time he grew up.
"He will not detract from his accountability to the Dail on these issues in this way. It is a smokescreen he throws up to avoid answering questions. He is Taoiseach, and these are matters of public importance. If he doesn't like it, he should get a new job."
He maintained that Fianna Fail "traded largely in personal abuse" in the run-up to the last general election, and that Mr Ahern's complaints were therefore hypocritical.