Bush, Dole Declare Cease-Fire in Verbal Skirmishing

The two chief rivals for the Republican presidential nomination sought to end their week-old public skirmishing Tuesday, with Vice President George Bush saying he had “made a mistake” in returning the salvos of Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, and Dole adding: “I think we’ve had enough of it.”

But, as the two campaigned separately in New Hampshire, the main points of contention--their relative financial positions and the Iran-Contra affair--got mentioned anyway.

Dole clearly was annoyed by reporters’ repeated questions about his refusal to release his income tax returns for public inspection, something Bush had demanded he do in a nationally televised debate on Saturday.

‘Made It the Hard Way’

Dole termed the issue a “diversionary tactic” by Bush to focus attention on matters other than the Iran-Contra affair. And he took a shot at Bush’s own wealth, saying: “The point is, where do we start in this life? . . . Nobody gave it to me. I didn’t have rich and powerful parents. I made it the hard way. I worked at it.

“I’ve given about one half million dollars to charity over the last several years. I’d like to see the Bushes match that.”

Dole denied reports that his income ranged up to a half million dollars in 1986, saying that critics are combining his income and that of his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Hanford Dole.

The senator earlier had been vigorous in his criticism of Bush’s failure to tell the entire story of his involvement in the Iran-Contra affair but said Tuesday that he is “not criticizing anybody, directly or by implication,” in his speeches.

Iran Issue Discounted

“I don’t think Iran-Contra is a real issue anymore,” Dole said in Somersworth, N. H. “It’s kind of died on the vine.”

But Bush raised the issue anew when he told reporters that he still believes that moderate political groups exist in Iran.

Much of the ultimate embarrassment attached to the Iran-Contra plan occurred because the Iranian groups being courted by Reagan Administration officials turned out to be not moderates but radicals.

When asked by reporters if someone with his intelligence experience--Bush served as CIA chief in 1976--believed that moderate elements exist in Iran, Bush replied:

“Moderate compared to the Ayatollah Khomeini? Absolutely.”

Bush did not say whether he favored reaching out to those groups, although in the past he has said he agreed to what he thought was an Administration plan to curry favor with Iranian moderates. Bush insists that he did not know the plan had degenerated into an arms-for-hostage swap until details were made public.

Questioned in Iran Affair

The vice president was questioned under oath in Washington Monday by representatives of special prosecutor Lawrence E. Walsh, who is investigating the Iran-Contra affair. He said Tuesday that the conversations went “pretty well.” He refused to discuss what topics were brought up in the interview but reiterated that he is “not a target of that investigation or subject of that investigation.”

Bush’s rapprochement with Dole occurred after a week of sustained bickering between the two Republican front-runners that included catcalls about each other’s leadership abilities, Dole’s suggestion that Bush explain his involvement in the Iran-Contra affair and Bush’s demand that Dole release his financial records.

But Tuesday, Bush refused to discuss Dole by name.

“I want to stay with the high road, not responding to some other candidate . . . . Keep my cool as best I can and absorb whatever shots may come my way,” he said. “I want to revert back to the old George Bush, which is less interesting, doesn’t make as much news, but I feel more comfortable about it.”

However, he reminded voters that he has pushed his fellow candidates to release their income tax returns--a move meant to undercut the wealthy Dole’s recurrent talk about his poor Midwestern roots.

Dole said: “I think the American people deserve more than Bob Dole and George Bush throwing brickbats at each other.”

To Discuss Roots

However, he said that he will continue to discuss his leadership abilities and his small-town, low-income background on the campaign trail. Unless he could discuss his roots and his abilities, “I might as well pack up my campaign and go home,” Dole said.

In another matter, the Small Business Administration said Tuesday that a preliminary investigation has found no evidence that Dole exercised “undue influence” on the agency in the awarding of a $26-million contract to a former Dole aide, John Palmer.

Palmer’s firm, EDP Enterprises, based in Overland Park, Kan., obtained a contract to provide food service to the Army’s huge Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri, where thousands of recruits receive basic training.

He was also involved in the purchase and resale of an Overland Park, Kan., building owned by the blind trust of Dole’s wife. There is no evidence that Dole or his wife benefited in any irregular way from the transaction.

No Correspondence Found

SBA spokeswoman Anita Irick said that, despite Dole’s admission that he spent a year and a half helping Palmer obtain the contract, the SBA has been unable to find any correspondence from the Kansas senator or his staff relating to the contract.

Dole and his wife said Tuesday that they have no knowledge of the management of the trust.

“It’s a blind trust,” Mrs. Dole said Tuesday. “Neither of us has any knowledge about it whatsoever. That’s the meaning of a blind trust.”

She said her trust was “set up years ago” and that her husband may not have known of its existence.

Staff writer John Broder contributed to this story from Washington.