Bush Aide Sets Off Furor With Attack on Dole

The already bitter Republican presidential race turned personal Wednesday when a key aide to Vice President George Bush called challenger Bob Dole a “mean-spirited” politician with a “record of cronyism.”

Dole quickly swung back, chiding Bush for either having backers do his dirty work or losing control of his campaign staff, in this case Bush Iowa GOP Chairman George Wittgraf. Dole said Bush should fire Wittgraf as well as apologize to Dole’s wife, Elizabeth, for remarks made about her by Wittgraf.

“We have no intention of firing George Wittgraf for pointing out the truth,” said Bush Press Secretary Peter Teeley.

The clash marked the sharpest split yet between the two front-runners in the six-candidate Republican field. It also underscored the tensions that are mounting in both camps as they head into crucial caucuses here on Monday and the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 16.

It began with a press release on Bush campaign stationery that quoted Wittgraf.

“Iowa Republicans must weigh Bob Dole’s record of cronyism and his history of mean-spiritedness carefully before they decide whom to support as our party’s nominee for President,” Wittgraf said.

Wittgraf blamed Dole, the Republican running mate of then-President Gerald R. Ford in 1976, for “nearly single-handedly” dooming the ticket by alienating voters with his acrid wit.

Referring to newspaper accounts to bolster his points, Wittgraf noted that Dole talks frequently about his humble boyhood in rural Kansas. “He fails, however, to mention that he and his wife now are millionaires,” Wittgraf charged.

Live in Watergate Complex

“Dole and his wife also live in Washington’s posh Watergate apartment complex and vacation regularly at a Florida condominium purchased by them with the help of wealthy agribusinessman Dwayne Andreas.”

And, though he acknowledged that Dole has never been charged with anything illegal regarding his finances, Wittgraf stressed that the administration of a blind trust held until recently by Elizabeth Hanford Dole, the former transportation secretary, has come under federal scrutiny. A House panel has also ordered an investigation into influence peddling charges involving former aides to the senator, Wittgraf added.

Dole refused to comment on Wittgraf’s charges, saying he wanted Bush to confront him directly before dignifying such statements with a response.

“If he’s not even leader enough to rein in this guy (Wittgraf), I don’t want him in there running the White House,” Dole snapped to reporters while campaigning at a school in this rural community 90 miles north of Des Moines.

Dole accused Bush of being “desperate” and “riding in the gutter.”

Bush himself did not comment on the press release or on Dole’s outburst, but Teeley said Bush was informed of the already-released Wittgraf statement while campaigning in Iowa.

“He didn’t express any opposition to what Wittgraf said,” said Teeley, who then described Dole’s reaction as “crocodile tears.”

In a speech before students of Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Bush did not refer to Dole by name, but said: “I believe you ought to set a high standard in terms of your personal finances so there is never confusion between that and the public trust.”

Dole came to Latimer to outline his education policy and never alluded to the Bush flap in a talk to students in the auditorium at the Cal Community High School. In the band room later, however, he stood in front of a sign that read, “A smile increases your face value,” and wavered between sarcasm and outrage as he talked to reporters.

‘Totally Out of Control’

“Nobody seems to be in charge,” Dole snapped. “Either George Bush is responsible for this kind of campaigning or he’s totally out of control.”

Dole, alluding to Bush’s explanation for his detachment from much of the Iran-Contra affair, mocked suggestions that Wittgraf may have been acting on his own in distributing the release.

“It says ‘George Bush for President,’ ” Dole said, clutching the document. “Maybe he’s not in charge. Maybe he wasn’t in the loop.”

Dole, the Senate Republican leader, leads Bush by a wide margin in several surveys of Iowa Republicans, but Bush has a big edge in the polls in New Hampshire and the rest of the nation. The Dole camp is hoping--and the Bush camp is fearing--that a big Iowa victory will swing momentum Dole’s way.

Both candidates have been subtlely tweaking each other’s competence and effectiveness for several days now in speeches and press conferences, but Wednesday’s exchange was a major escalation.

The Bush campaign appeared delighted at the response the Wittgraf statement engendered, and attempted to use it to gain some measure of revenge for Dole’s statements after Bush’s televised contretemps with CBS anchorman Dan Rather last week.

Comparison to Gorbachev

After that event, Dole had suggested that if Bush could not stand the heat from Rather, he could not be trusted to stand up to Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Mimicking Dole’s statement almost word for word, Teeley said:

“If a young country lawyer (Wittgraf) can get under Bob Dole’s skin, how’s he going to deal with Mike Gorbachev?”

Bush’s campaign plainly saw the Wittgraf statement as a counterpoint to past anti-Bush comments by Dole’s consultant, David Keene.

“David Keene of his staff has been one of the premier political assassins of 1988, and we haven’t complained about that,” Teeley said.

“This is part of politics, that’s all and he’s got to understand that.”

Staff writer Cathleen Decker contributed to this story from Dubuque, Iowa.