Dukakis Fires Up the Troops, Fires at the Opposition : Bush Accused of Flip-Flop on Oil Drilling

Stung by criticism within his own party that he had let the Republicans take the environmental issue away from him, Democratic presidential nominee Michael S. Dukakis counterattacked Saturday, accusing Vice President George Bush of flip-flopping on offshore drilling and of helping to undermine the Clean Water Act.

Dukakis also upped the ante on the environmental issue by promising to elevate the Environmental Protection Agency to Cabinet status if elected.

“You know,” Dukakis told a big Democratic rally in Buena Park, “the sight of George Bush campaigning on the coasts and talking about his commitment to clean water reminds me of the old saying from the television detective shows. Remember? They always return to the scene of the crime.”

‘Did Nothing’

Early this month, Bush traveled to the heart of Dukakis territory to draw attention to the pollution in Boston Harbor and accuse the Massachusetts governor of failing to clean it up.

Striking back on Saturday, Dukakis said of Bush:

“He stood by and did nothing while they tried to dismantle the Superfund (for toxic cleanup); he supported the President’s veto--not once but twice--of the Clean Water Act.

“And he’s done more somersaults than an Olympic gymnast on the subject of offshore drilling off the California coast.

“When he’s in Texas he’s for it. When he’s in California, he says, well, maybe not.”

That was a reference to Bush’s conflicting statements on the matter. Last spring, in a break with the Reagan Administration, Bush said he favored a moratorium on the sale of offshore oil leases in Northern California until further study of environmental risks.

But recently in East Texas, Bush said: “My opponent is against offshore drilling. I’m for it.”

A fact sheet released by Dukakis noted that the EPA, created in 1970 under Republican President Richard M. Nixon, had grown from four primary programs to 13 and includes administration of the Superfund, the Toxic Substances Control Act and both the Clean Air and Clean Water acts.

Its budget, the fact sheet said, is now $5 billion, larger than those of the State Department and Commerce Department. It employs 14,000 people, more than the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“That’s why we are going to make the EPA a Cabinet department,” Dukakis said Saturday. “And the first secretary of the environment is going to be as committed to protecting the environment as George Bush has been to neglecting it.”

There are now 13 Cabinet departments. Creating a new one requires an act of Congress.

The environment was one of two pages Dukakis borrowed Saturday from the California playbook of Democratic U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston. The other is an extensive organization of precinct workers “to turn out every Democrat still breathing in California,” in the words of one party activist.

In a state that has been trending Republican in gubernatorial, senatorial and presidential races, Cranston credits his environmental record and get-out-the-vote effort for his narrow reelection victory two years ago.

Precinct organizing also is a Dukakis trademark, going back to his first election as Massachusetts governor in 1974.

Because Democratic presidential candidates expect to lose in Orange County, Saturday’s rally was not a call to victory but rather the beginning of an effort to keep the losing margin as low as possible while Dukakis tries to win the state with strong showings in Los Angeles County and in Northern California.

Big Reagan Victory

In 1984, President Reagan trounced Walter F. Mondale by 600,000 votes to 200,000 in Orange County and won the state by 1.5 million votes. Cranston, by contrast, was able to limit his Orange County loss to 170,000 votes and prevailed statewide by 100,000 votes out of more than 8 million cast.

“We love it when we get so many people at a rally in Orange County we have to lock them out,” said Steve Hopcraft, spokesman for Campaign California, the $4-million apparatus that will try to turn out Democratic votes for Dukakis and other candidates.

Thanks to the organizing efforts of Sierra Club activist Bob Hattoy, Saturday’s rally of Orange County Democrats was the largest in years. The fire marshal shut the doors with more than 1,000 people inside a labor hall and about 250 more outdoors.

It gave Dukakis an upbeat finish for his three-day trip to California and appeared to cheer up some of his campaign workers, who had watched in dismay as Bush set the agenda in the state recently with well-timed attacks on Dukakis.

Dukakis also raised $1 million Friday night for the Democrats’ “Victory Fund” at a dinner in San Diego organized by longtime party contributor M. Larry Lawrence.

Times staff writer Bob Drogin contributed to this story.