Bush Castigates Dukakis on Taxes, Crime

Declaring that “spring training is over,” Vice President George Bush opened the general election season Thursday by delivering his fiercest attack of the campaign against the background and policies of his likely November opponent, Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis.

Speaking before 5,000 rapturous supporters at the Texas state Republican convention here, Bush castigated the Massachusetts governor as “an articulate defender of a flawed world view” whose “views and values are . . . out of the mainstream.”

He characterized Dukakis as a “proponent of higher taxes”--Bush has vowed not to increase federal taxes if elected--and said the governor’s position on crime “is standard old-style ‘60s liberalism.”

“He has steadfastly opposed the death penalty. He supported the only state program in the whole country--the only one--that gives unsupervised weekend furloughs to first-degree murderers,” Bush charged, referring to a now-defunct Massachusetts prison furlough program.

Bush also sliced away at Dukakis’ foreign policy views, saying they were “born in Harvard Yard’s boutique,” and questioned whether the governor would be able to “get tough” with drug kingpins.

Visions Differ

“At issue this year are two completely different visions of our country and where it’s going,” Bush said.

The vice president, whose patrician upbringing has been the target of gibes from Democratic candidates and party officials in recent months, also tried to turn the tables on Dukakis by contrasting his own past Texas life style with the governor’s Harvard ties.

It was to Texas that Bush traveled in 1948 to begin an oil drilling business, which he sold two decades later when he won a seat in Congress representing Houston.

“When I wanted to learn the ways of the world, I didn’t go to the Kennedy School, I came to Texas,” Bush said, referring to Dukakis’ teaching stint after he lost the governorship for a term in 1978.

“I didn’t go to a symposium on job creation, I started a business. I didn’t study a monograph on the effects of economic growth, I met a payroll,” Bush added.

Advisers See Chance

The aggressive approach reflected a belief by Bush’s campaign advisers that Dukakis’ clinching of the Democratic nomination Tuesday night afforded them a chance to break into view again, after months spent obscured by the continuing Democratic race.

Bush himself had also been reluctant to take on Dukakis before Tuesday night’s results, frequently saying that a premature move would be seen as a slap at the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Flying to Houston from Washington Thursday morning, Bush’s campaign manager, Lee Atwater, exulted: “We’re on a new playing field. The race is now going to be on a more even keel.”

Hints of Bush’s approach emerged in California earlier this week, when Bush stepped up his criticism of Dukakis. But on Thursday he let loose with a vengeance.

The attitude dominated both the speech and a press conference beforehand. Speaking to reporters, Bush virtually dared Democrats to try to burden him with the ethical troubles of Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III, given similar concerns over the behavior of House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.).

Advises Caution

When asked how he would tie Wright to Dukakis--unlike Meese and Bush, they are not partners in an Administration--he replied: “Same way he tried to make naughty stuff stick to me. . . . I’d be a little careful about casting the first stone out there.”

While he spent much of his time outlining his course of attack against Dukakis on issues like crime and taxes, Bush spoke sparingly of his own positions, using them only in contrast to a targeted position of Dukakis’.

But in a new touch, he did portray his view of the nation in the most evocative words he has used since he was fighting for political survival in New Hampshire four months ago. Then as now, not incidentally, he was behind in the polls.

“I see an America that is still the dream, the place all the boat people of all the unhappy countries dream of and risk their lives to get to,” Bush said. “I know it in my heart, not loudly but proudly and as a simple fact, that this is a country with meaning beyond what we see, that our strength is a force for good in the world, and that we can be trusted with power.”

The vice president has been under heat to offer more of what he calls “the vision thing” and to assert his differences with President Reagan.

“I’m going to continue what’s worked these past eight years and, frankly, change what hasn’t,” he said.

Later he took note of polls suggesting that many Americans are looking for change this election year. “This time, in this case,” Bush said, “change and improvement comes from the incumbent vice president.”

But some of Bush’s difficulties are illustrated in Texas. He makes much of his roots here, yet he is ahead of Dukakis by less than 10 points. Dukakis, who speaks fluent Spanish, has been able to make inroads among the Latino population in the state.

Appears on ‘Nightline’

Thursday night the vice president, who until recently has dodged national interviews, appeared on an hourlong edition of ABC’s “Nightline” program, where he insisted that voters did not consider the Iran-Contra affair a “compelling issue” in the campaign.

As he has in the past, Bush said he was unaware until late in the planning that the affair centered on an arms-for-hostages deal. But he also appeared to hint at one point that the Administration expected the release of hostages--although in another part of the interview he maintained his traditional stance that officials had no assurance of any release.

“The way the deal was set up by the President was not to be in his mind and mine arms for hostages,” Bush said. “Did we know that . . . missiles were going to be sent someplace? Sure. Did we know that hostages were going to get out? Did we know we were trying to make contact with moderates (in Iran)? Of course.”

He described the Iran-Contra affair, generally considered to be the Administration’s worst diplomatic blunder, as one of “two or three little issues that have gone wrong.”

Twice in the interview, Bush called moderator Ted Koppel “Dan,” referring to CBS newsman Dan Rather, with whom Bush had a heated exchange on the subject of Iran-Contra in January. Koppel at one point suggested “try calling me Peter,” a reference to ABC anchorman Peter Jennings.

Bush apologized and said of the slip: “It’s Freudian.”