Democrats Sharpening Attacks on Bush

Democratic leaders, frustrated by disarray in their party, are sharpening their attacks on President Bush on a variety of issues and suggesting that the extended honeymoon he has enjoyed with Congress is over.

Party Chairman Ron Brown disclosed Tuesday that Democratic congressional leaders agreed on a more unified and aggressive posture toward the President during recent closed meetings at which Brown urged them to emphasize Bush’s “failures” in addressing drugs, education and other issues.

Sees Jackson Winning

And, in addressing another potentially awkward problem confronting the Democrats, Brown said that civil rights leader Jesse Jackson will win if he runs as expected for mayor of Washington, D.C., next year, and that this effectively would remove him from consideration as a presidential candidate in 1992.

Brown, the first black to head the party, is known to hold the strong belief that a Jackson presidential candidacy would hurt the Democrats’ chances of recapturing the White House in 1992. Brown was Jackson’s campaign chairman in 1988, when Jackson polled more than 7 million votes in a losing race for the Democratic nomination.

Peppered with questions about the party’s political problems during an interview with reporters, Brown declared that there will be “a lot more coordination” from now on among the Democratic National Committee and party leaders in the House and Senate as Democrats respond to Bush’s initiatives at home and abroad.

Brown, who earlier criticized some party leaders for responding to Bush’s anti-drug initiative by proposing new taxes to finance a costlier program, said that “the Democratic leadership has to be more forceful in stating our policies and drawing distinctions with Administration policies and pointing out their failures.”

A group of party activists, at a conference here a week ago to examine the Democrats’ defeats in five of the last six presidential elections, declared that the failure of party leaders to confront Bush on a range of issues from drugs to taxes to his “puny package” of aid to Poland could cost the party the election again in 1992.

Despite all the talk of coordinating the Democratic message, some disarray continues to plague the party leadership. For example, Senate Majority Whip Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) said that he knows nothing of any unity meetings attended by Brown and accused the chairman of undermining the party by publicly criticizing other Democratic leaders.

Cranston said he agrees with Brown that Bush is “talking big problems and programs and not putting any substance behind them” but does not agree with criticism that Democratic leaders need to be more aggressive in confronting the President.

“We’ve been coming up with very strong, very tough programs--not rhetoric--on vital issues,” Cranston said. “We’re being forceful. I disagree with the public criticism; it would be more helpful to discuss problems among Democrats.”

However, other Democratic congressional leaders, in interviews Tuesday, agreed with Brown that the party must do a better job of coordinating its response to Bush.

Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) said that, when Democrats believe the President’s policies are “wrong and not in the nation’s interests, they will vigorously oppose them and propose alternatives.”

Mitchell added: “We are constantly working to improve the method of getting our message across, and, as the Administration matures and time passes, you will see a sharpening of controversies and differences over our positions.”

Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.), the Senate Finance Committee chairman, who has proposed expanding tax deductions for individual retirement accounts as an alternative to a cut in the capital gains tax proposed by Bush, said that it is essential for Democrats to coordinate their message.

But, Bentsen noted, it is also “terribly important that we have things that we are for and not just in opposition to.”

Democrats cited strong attacks by Mitchell on Bush’s initiatives in Eastern Europe and by House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) on the President’s capital gains tax proposal as examples of a new, more aggressive party attitude toward Administration programs.

Gephardt told reporters that, when the American people realize Bush’s capital gains tax proposal is “a tax break for the super-rich and eventually will have to be paid for by the middle class, they’ll be very angry.”

Earlier, in a Senate speech, Mitchell criticized Bush for “ambivalence and hesitation and timidity” in providing aid for Poland and Hungary.

Cranston, meanwhile, has introduced a bill that would substantially increase the amount of U.S. aid that Bush has proposed to help the two communist countries in their struggles for economic and political reform.

Staff writer William J. Eaton contributed to this story.