Metzenbaum Given Apology Over Report

Sen. Rudy Boschwitz (R-Minn.), head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, apologized Wednesday to Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio) for a campaign strategy report urging that Metzenbaum be depicted as a communist sympathizer.

Boschwitz said on the Senate floor he agreed with Metzenbaum that the committee report “has no place in politics and indeed demeans the political process.”

Boschwitz said he had neither seen nor heard about the report prior to Tuesday, that it was prepared without direction during a transition period earlier this year as he was assuming chairmanship of the committee, and that the person responsible for the research left the committee a month or two ago. Boschwitz did not identify that person.

“To suggest that he (Metzenbaum) is a communist is insulting and outrageous, as are many, indeed most, of the other conclusions in the report,” Boschwitz said. “I personally apologize to Sen. Metzenbaum that the committee for which I am chairman would do such a report. And I take full responsibility for it as I should.”

The report suggested strategy that Republicans should use to defeat Metzenbaum in the 1988 election and detailed ways of attacking his Senate record, character and personal integrity. It urged campaign themes based in part on Metzenbaum’s past involvement in allegedly communist causes.

Metzenbaum called the suggestion he is a communist sympathizer a lie.