CAMPAIGN ’88 : He’d Rather Switch

For the second day in a row, Dukakis appeared to change his stance on an issue when he agreed Tuesday to support a ban on furloughs for first-degree murderers.

“I try to listen, I try to learn,” Dukakis said at a Statehouse news conference in Boston. He previously had called the furlough program for murderers essential for maintaining order in the state’s prisons.

Failure to support the ban had threatened to make Dukakis the target of a law-and-order ballot campaign in the fall, a time when he hopes to be driving for the presidency.

Until either the Legislature passes a furlough ban, as expected, or a ballot question this fall wins support, Dukakis said he will continue a freeze on issuing furloughs to the approximately 300 first-degree murderers in the state prison system who, by law, cannot be paroled.

On Monday, Dukakis, a longtime critic of new presidential powers against unfair foreign trade competition, came out in favor of trade restrictions proposed by Sen. Donald W. Riegle Jr. (D-Mich.), saying the Riegle plan had elements that previous proposals lacked.

Dukakis was asked Tuesday about criticism over his change of position on the furlough question, and responded: “Ralph Waldo Emerson said that foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. On the other hand, I’m not someone who changes his mind every week.”