GOP to Find Truth Is ‘Hell,’ Bentsen Says

When Democrats fall behind in the polls, they look for inspiration to Harry S. Truman and his comeback victory of 1948.

And it was in Truman’s writings that vice presidential nominee Lloyd Bentsen found an admonition Monday.

“You have to appeal to the best instincts of people, not the worst,” Bentsen said, quoting from a Truman speech.

“Sometimes you may win a few elections the other way,” Bentsen said, “but you really hurt your country.”

Cheered by Students

Roughly 2,000 students who filled a plaza and lined balconies at the University of California at San Diego cheered his appeal to a political ideal, welcoming the notion that Bentsen and Michael S. Dukakis, like Truman before them, would “offer the truth” in the closing weeks of the campaign--”and the Republicans (will) think it’s hell.”

In his speech, Bentsen abandoned his customary criticism of his Republican counterpart, Dan Quayle, and focused on the need for America to become more competitive in science and technology.

But, for all the high-mindedness, Bentsen found himself earlier in the day in the familiar position of fending off a Republican attack.

In attempting to counter a charge that has been effective across the South, Bentsen told a small crowd in Texarkana, Ark., that he wouldn’t be sharing a ticket with Dukakis “if I thought he was going to take my shotgun away. No way!”

Chuck Yeager Assailed

Also, the Texas senator challenged a new Republican ad featuring test pilot Chuck Yeager. Bentsen said “it ain’t so” that Democrats would cut back on national defense. Bentsen branded Yeager “a hired lobbyist for a defense contractor” and said bitterly: “He ought to get back to doing what he was hired out to do.”

In the Texarkana speech, and in interviews afterward, Bentsen emphasized that his presence in the South should be regarded as evidence that Democrats have not given up on the region.

But Arkansas Sen. Dale Bumpers, who shared the dais with him, said: “Right now, George Bush is winning in a landslide.” He said that Dukakis’ performance in last week’s debate was not his “finest hour,” but added: “We’re all human.”

With Dukakis’ prospects dwindling in Arkansas, which once was regarded as the ticket’s best bet in the South, other Democrats have become openly critical of or seemed to abandon Dukakis altogether.

Dukakis Not Welcome

Rep. Tommy F. Robinson, a conservative Democrat from the center of the state, told a Little Rock newspaper last week that Dukakis was not welcome in his district because of his views on defense policy.

And an exasperated Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), insisting that Dukakis “can capture the hearts and minds of Democrats in the South in the next three weeks if he comes out swinging,” said that “someone’s got to grab him and tell him what to do.”

“He’s got to show some passion, commitment, leadership,” Alexander told reporters aboard Bentsen’s campaign plane. “He may have made an A+ in political science, but he hasn’t passed politics.”