Bush Has Right to Differ, Fitzwater Says : White House Shrugs Off Vice President’s Statements on Noriega

The White House, shrugging off Vice President George Bush’s apparent break with the Reagan Administration over its plans to negotiate with Panamanian strongman Manuel A. Noriega, said Thursday that it expects the traditionally loyal Bush to express other policy differences as he campaigns for the presidency.

“He has his ideas on how he’s going to want to do things, and that’s fine,” White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater told reporters. “We will not criticize them in any way. If you want to drive a wedge between the White House and the vice president, forget it.”

Took Critical Stand

A day earlier in Los Angeles, Bush had implicitly criticized controversial Administration proposals to drop drug-trafficking charges against Noriega in exchange for his relinquishing power.

“I won’t bargain with drug dealers . . . whether they’re on U.S. or foreign soil,” Bush declared.

Fitzwater termed the Bush statement “fine with us” and insisted it represented “no conflict at all” within the Administration.

“The vice president supports the policies and programs of the President, but he also has an obligation to speak out on how he would deal with things as the President in later years, and that’s what he’s doing,” Fitzwater said.

Bush made his remarks as the White House faced mounting criticism over its strategy on Noriega. On Tuesday, the Senate voted 86 to 10 to adopt a non-binding “sense of Congress” resolution opposing negotiations that could lead to dropping the charges against the Panamanian general.

Bush Under Pressure

Meanwhile, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, has been hammering at the Administration’s Panama policy. And Bush, slipping behind Dukakis in opinion polls, has been under pressure from advisers to suggest how he might differ from Reagan as the nation’s chief executive.

Bush’s pronouncement on drug dealers wrapped up a weeklong Western campaign swing in which he laid out several other differences, although not dramatic ones, with Reagan. For example, he called Monday for action on acid rain; for the last seven years, the Administration has called only for more study.

“As we go through the campaign,” Fitzwater said Thursday, “I would expect to see the vice president speaking out on a number of issues in terms of what he would do. I expect that a number of them will be different than existing policies . . . .

Different Problems in ‘90s

“The problems of the ‘90s are going to be different than the problems of the ‘80s. He’ll be facing different problems. He’ll undoubtedly have different ideas and solutions.”

Fitzwater was asked why the White House had tolerated Bush’s criticism of negotiations with Noriega but had rebuked Dukakis for, among other things, his criticism of efforts to free U.S. hostages in Lebanon.

“The difference is,” Fitzwater said with a smile, “Dukakis is a Democrat and George Bush isn’t.”