High Cost of Bucking Bush Irks Wilson : Politics: President’s absence from a fund-raiser may have been retaliation for senator’s opposition to FSX fighter plane deal.

The clash still rankles Sen. Pete Wilson.

Six weeks ago, President Bush stayed away from a fund-raising dinner for Wilson (R-Calif.), apparently making good on a threat by White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu.

Sununu reportedly threatened to retaliate unless Wilson supported Bush on the proposed FSX fighter plane for Japan. Wilson voted to override Bush’s veto of a bill to hedge the FSX deal.

Sununu “made the comment that they would be looking at this vote and making a decision about which fund-raisers they did,” Wilson recalled. “And I said, ‘Well, I remind you this is one of many votes.’ ”

But now the intraparty dispute appears to be smoothed over. Bush recently agreed to attend a $1,000-a-ticket fund-raiser for Wilson and the California Republican Party on Feb. 6 at the Century Plaza in Los Angeles.

Organizers say they hope the dinner and associated events will pull in at least $2 million. “Obviously, the President of the United States is a very great draw,” Wilson said.

That is why Wilson, whose gubernatorial campaign is rated by Republican National Committee Chairman Lee Atwater as the most important of 1990, repeatedly requested Bush’s presence at last year’s fund-raiser. But Sununu scotched that with his phone call to Wilson on Sept. 13, 20 minutes before a veto override vote on joint U.S.-Japanese development of Japan’s FSX fighter plane.

Wilson voted with 11 other Republicans and 54 Democrats to override Bush’s veto of a resolution that would have hedged the U.S.-Japanese FSX deal with stringent--and possibly fatal--conditions. The veto was upheld because opponents fell one vote short of gaining the necessary two-thirds majority to override.

Wilson still resents Sununu’s approach.

“I think that he has some obligation to try to get votes,” Wilson said of Sununu recently. “But he ought to have a better sense of where that kind of tactic will work and where it won’t.

“I have great affection for this President and want to support him when I can, but just as in the case with President Reagan, when I felt compelled by conscience to disagree and act on it, I did.”

The Washington Post, which first reported the flap in a Sununu profile Wednesday, quoted the prickly chief of staff as saying: “If Pete Wilson is concerned that perhaps he should have supported the President on FSX, we’re pleased to hear that he recognizes that we do pay attention to who supports the President.”

Both Atwater and aides to Wilson sought to play down the incident. They suggested that presidential scheduling problems, rather than Sununu’s threat, may have prevented Bush from attending Wilson’s Nov. 29 fund-raiser.

They noted that Bush had to campaign for three Republicans in tight Senate and gubernatorial races last November and also had to leave for the Malta summit with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Nov. 30.

Atwater and White House aide Ed Rogers “never indicated in any way the FSX vote was a problem in getting the President here,” said George Gorton, Wilson’s campaign manager. “They always indicated schedule problems.”

“Now it’s worked out,” he added. “Chocolate wouldn’t melt in their mouth, they’re so sweet.”

Wilson, who campaigned hard for Bush in the 1988 presidential election, agreed. “I think the President has always intended to be all of the help he could be,” he said. “The White House has been very accommodating in several respects.”

Ronald Reagan served as a stand-in for Bush at the Nov. 29 dinner, which raised about $500,000.