President Accepts Denial by Atwater on Foley Memo

President Bush said Thursday that Republican National Chairman Lee Atwater “looked me right in the eye” and said that he did not know about the preparation of a memo by a high GOP official that attacked Speaker Thomas S. Foley by innuendo.

“And so, I accept that,” the President said.

Bush’s comments on the Foley attack, made in the President’s nationally televised press conference, were intended to blunt demands by some Democrats for Atwater’s resignation because of the incident.

“I have great respect for Tom Foley, and he’s the one that says the matter should be closed, and he’s right,” Bush said. “It was disgusting . . . it’s against everything that I have tried to stand for in political life.”

The memo, circulated by Republican National Committee communications director Mark W. Goodin on Foley’s first day as House Speaker, charged that he had come “out of the liberal closet” and compared his voting record with that of Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), one of two self-declared homosexual members of Congress.

Both Republican and Democratic leaders denounced it, and Goodin resigned Wednesday.

Bush said that neither the Republican nor Democratic Party was wholly responsible for creating the harsh atmosphere on Capitol Hill.

“The ugliness of this climate is bad, and I don’t like it,” he added.

The President said he considered the personal attacks earlier this year on his defeated nominee for defense secretary, John Tower, to be as serious as the slur on Foley.

“You know and I know that he (Tower) was vilified by rumor and innuendo,” Bush said, referring to allegations that Tower had a drinking problem and misbehaved with women.

The President credited Atwater with moving promptly to remove Goodin.