Bush Seems to Differ on Noriega Stance

Vice President George Bush seemed to draw back Wednesday from the Reagan Administration’s controversial “plea bargaining” with Panamanian leader Manuel A. Noriega, saying: “I won’t bargain with drug dealers.”

Noriega has been indicted on federal drug-trafficking charges by two U.S. grand juries, but the Administration has offered to drop the charges if Noriega relinquishes power. In a speech at the Los Angeles Police Academy, Bush said: “Drug dealers are domestic terrorists, killing kids and cops, and they should be treated as such. I won’t bargain with drug dealers, either, whether they’re on U.S. or foreign soil.”

Bush did not mention Noriega by name. But considering that questions about negotiations with the Panamanian general hound Bush daily, it was difficult to misinterpret the point.

Slipping Behind

Asked directly if he was referring to Noriega, Bush, through a spokesman, said only: “This is the way I would deal with drug dealers as President.”

Bush, who has been slipping behind Democratic front-runner Michael S. Dukakis in recent public opinion polls, sought in the speech to regain some advantage in the growing political clamor over drugs, which the same polls show to be the top domestic concern of Americans.

Besides his rare break with Administration policy, he declared Wednesday that he would appoint his vice president to oversee a Cabinet-level “Council of War” to direct drug enforcement efforts of the FBI, CIA, IRS, Customs Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, Coast Guard, Navy and all the rest of the federal government.

The vice president’s most comprehensive anti-drug speech of the campaign followed an eerie tour of a recently busted south-central Los Angeles “crack house” and an uplifting appearance at a police department anti-drug class for fifth and sixth graders at a school in Highland Park.

‘Sobering and Inspiring’

“This has been both a sobering and inspiring day for me,” Bush said of his various encounters with the world of drugs.

At 33rd and Central, the vice president began his day viewing the unnerving sight--and smelling the acrid stench--of a ghetto drug den. Here was a heavily fortified “rock house” that was assaulted by police on May 2, resulting in the arrests of 32 people.

According to police, the large, ground-floor room in a building, which included apartments and a liquor store, was a club of sorts where crack cocaine was sold. Here, users could lounge around and smoke their drugs, shielded from the outside world by three separate steel doors.

“What about the neighbors? They must feel bad about this. It’s their neighborhood. There are little kids out there,” Bush said.

Detective Mike Brown, who helped lead the raid, said neighborhood residents applauded the police action. Some called to say thanks, Brown said.

A Fortified Booth

Amid the filth and litter of the room was the remnant of a fortified booth. Inside stood a “teller” who dispensed drugs much as a bank teller makes change.

“It brings it home dramatically,” Bush said of his visit. “It’s not show business. You try to learn, understand and take action. That’s what I want to do if I’m elected and this has been extraordinarily helpful to me.”

Next, Bush traveled by motorcade to San Pascual Avenue Elementary School in Highland Park and sat in on a DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) class. Here, police officer Greg Boles taught the youngsters not just to say no to drugs, but how to say it.

In pairs, the students stood before the vice president and Police Chief Daryl F. Gates and demonstrated what they had learned about dealing with teasing, peer pressure and dares to try drugs.

Bush wound up his day with his speech against drugs. It was the first in a series of addresses the vice president has planned. Bush said that in a few weeks he will detail a proposal to “restructure the federal government to guarantee the most effective action against narcotics.”

Lately on Defensive

It is an issue that lately has had him on the defensive. Not just with Noriega, but with drug interdiction and budget cutbacks, the performance of the Reagan Administration in combatting drugs has come under increasing fire by the Democrats--and Bush has been at the heart of some of the Administration’s most vaunted efforts to stop drug runners.

Of his role as chairman of anti-drug task forces in the Administration, Bush said: “I’ve concluded that’s not enough. If elected, I will put my vice president in charge of every aspect of federal drug policy.

“I will ask the vice president to head a Council of War to pull the effort together, to develop and coordinate a national strategy, and to make sure it’s carried out.”