Bush Probable GOP Nominee, Dole Concedes

Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole took a substantial step toward the campaign sidelines Friday, saying it is “probably pretty much a foregone conclusion” that Vice President George Bush has clinched the party’s nomination.

In comments that resounded with bittersweet regret, the Kansas senator indicated support for the Republican ticket in November--and the probability that he will not be on it.

“We need to keep a Republican in the White House--that’s where I’m coming from--and, if it can’t be me, it’ll be George Bush,” he said.

Dole Outlines Views

Dole’s address here to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was the second in a series of Democrat-bashing speeches meant to outline his views before he steps off the candidate stage, although as yet Dole has refused to say publicly when he will do so.

He slung insults at the economic policies of Democratic candidates Michael S. Dukakis, Illinois Sen. Paul Simon, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Jr., but the status of his own campaign took the focus off those criticisms.

Dole spokesman Walt Riker said the senator’s statements were not meant “to be an announcement or a throwing in of the towel,” but he confirmed that the campaign was under a “day-to-day assessment.”

A friend of Dole, meanwhile, said that the Senate minority leader had come to terms with the end of his quest for the presidency and was only searching for a method and a time to formally quit the race. There were indications Friday, however, that Dole might suspend his campaign within a week.

“It’s a question of timing, of going out with his head high,” said the friend, who insisted on anonymity. “With each passing day, he gets closer to the time. . . . He talks in the past tense. It’s over. He knows.”

Discussing Broad Themes

Dole refused to acknowledge such sentiments. When asked by a reporter if his 3-day-old effort to discuss broad themes was a way of emphasizing his interests “on his way out,” Dole said: “Oh, no.

“We’ll be making additional speeches here in the next few days, another one on Monday,” Dole added. “Just on some things I want to say.

“I can read the numbers and I know probably what’s going to happen, but . . . I think sometimes, if you’re not out there making four or five stops a day, people are more apt to listen.”

His protestations to the contrary, Dole has brought his helter-skelter campaign to a near stop since Tuesday, when he returned from Wisconsin, the state where he said he would fight it out with Bush’s steam-roller organization.

Since then, Dole has limited his appearances to a Wednesday critique here of Democratic foreign policy initiatives, a Thursday half-day swing into Connecticut and Friday’s discourse on the Democratic candidates’ economic stands. He will stay home in Washington this weekend, instead of campaigning, and there are no firm travel plans beyond the weekend.

He is scheduled to deliver a speech Monday on Republican Party-building.

When asked what he made of the senator’s statements, Bush told an interviewer Friday: “If I started helping you with what it means, I’d be getting diverted from my main goal of stacking up more delegates. I’ve got to keep going right down to the wire and not try to figure out someone else’s campaign.”

Muted Version of Self

During the bulk of his speech Friday, Dole was a slightly muted version of his needling self, poking at Democratic contenders and insisting that the deficit is the most pressing problem facing the nation.

He borrowed Massachusetts Gov. Dukakis’ joke--”Someone said that was the last line on the vision chart,” he said after tripping on Dukakis’ name--and called him “a proponent of the Houdini school of economics.”

“Not voodoo,” he said, referring to Bush’s 1980 characterization of supply-side economics, “but Houdini.”

Then he alluded to Dukakis’ call for expanded enforcement of tax laws: “Claiming that the deficit will just disappear if we add 3,000 new tax collecting agents to the staff of the IRS,” he deadpanned. “I wish we’d thought of that.”

5,000 More IRS Agents

Actually, Dole said, the recent addition of 5,000 IRS agents had drawn in only $3.1 billion in overdue taxes.

Policies espoused by Jackson, Gore and Simon came in for similar criticism.

Dole’s last political victory occurred in mid-February, when he won the South Dakota and Minnesota contests, but his campaign since then has been racked by defeats. After losing 16 Super Tuesday states on March 8, friends said Friday, Dole privately saw that his candidacy was doomed by Bush’s immense lead in delegates.

“He is by far the best politician in the bunch,” said Thomas D. Rath, a former New Hampshire attorney general and a Dole strategist. “His career has been based on the ability to count, among other things. He understands exactly the realistic nature at this time.

Using ‘the Bully Pulpit’

“What he wants to be sure of is he has the opportunity to say things that are important while he still has the bully pulpit and make clear why he ran and the sense of who he is.”

Another Dole friend described the senator as “in a blue funk.”

“He’s bruised and he’s wounded and he’s hurt,” the friend said, suggesting that Dole would formally shelve his candidacy after next week’s Senate recess. Both said Dole, despite the bitter contest with Bush, is committed to supporting the eventual Republican nominee.

Publicly, Dole would only acknowledge slippage, not defeat.

“I’ve been saying now for some time as a candidate all the things I thought we should focus on and nobody really seemed to care,” he told Chamber of Commerce members. “I still believe there are issues that should be addressed, and, lo and behold, as your candidacy weakens, you find more people willing to listen.”