Reagan Unfairly Accused of ‘Playing Politics’--Bush

George Bush complained today that President Reagan is being unfairly accused of “playing 1988 politics” with recent Cabinet and policy decisions and added, “I guess it’s just that time of year.”

Bush denied that a host of recent Reagan decisions, including the nomination of a Latino to be education secretary, were calculated to bolster the vice president’s election prospects.

In a meeting with reporters, he noted that National Education Assn. officials had ascribed political motives to Reagan’s selection of Texas Tech University President Lauro F. Cavazos to succeed Education Secretary William J. Bennett.

‘I Guess It’s Normal’

“I guess it’s normal that everything he does, people will accuse him of playing politics. But I certainly won’t add any validity to that charge,” Bush said.

Some observers have also ascribed political motives to Reagan’s veto of a defense spending bill that had wide bipartisan support and his decision to allow a politically popular plant-closings notification law, which he adamantly opposed, to become law.

Bush had called reporters to his office complex in the Old Executive Office Building next to the White House to announce the selection of former Sen. Paul Laxalt of Nevada, a close Reagan confidant, as a Bush presidential campaign co-chairman.

Bush chafed at a question of whether a host of recent presidential decisions have been geared toward boosting the vice president’s position against Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis in public opinion polls.

Friends of Bush

Reagan had filled two other Cabinet vacancies with people known to be on close terms with Bush, nominating former Pennsylvania Gov. Richard Thornburgh to be attorney general and picking Wall Street investment banker Nicholas F. Brady to succeed Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III.

On Tuesday, the President picked Cavazos to head the Education Department, a month after Bush promised a Latino audience in Dallas that he would put a Latino in the Cabinet if elected.

Referring to the NEA comments on Cavazos’ selection by Reagan, Bush said, “People jump all over him accusing him of playing 1988 politics.”

Asked whether the Administration was, nonetheless, taking on an increasingly Bush look, the vice president replied: “I don’t think they’ve ever had a non-George Bush look to it. It’s just been put into a focus of George Bush because I’m the, will be, the nominee of the party.

“Yes, I was asked about the secretary of education job. I expressed my opinion. But I’m not going to start . . . jumping out trying to take credit for or responsibility for what is a very important presidential appointment.”