Bush Says Let NEA Decide What’s Art : Arts: President expresses support of bill before Congress despite being ‘deeply offended by some of the filth that I see into which federal money has gone.’

President Bush expressed deep personal distaste Friday for what he characterized as “blasphemous” works funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, but said his personal reaction hasn’t swayed his strong support for legislation that rejects specific content controls on what the NEA can support.

In a meeting with out-of-town editors at the White House, Bush re-emphasized his commitment to an Administration proposal delivered to Congress earlier this week calling for extension of the NEA’s legislative mandate for another five years with no restriction on arts content.

The arts endowment is currently in the beginning stages of congressional debate over its legislative reauthorization. A Senate subcommittee hearing is scheduled in Washington Thursday, with action in the House and Senate expected to be completed by July 4.

“I don’t know of anybody in the government that should be set up to censor what you write or what you paint or how you express yourselves,” Bush told the out-of-town editors. “I’m against censorship, but I will try to convince those who feel differently in terms of legislation that we will do everything in our power to stop pure blasphemy.”

“I would prefer to have this matter handled by a very sensitive, knowledgeable man of the arts, (NEA Chairman) John Frohnmayer, than risk censorship or getting the federal government into telling every artist what he or she can paint or how she or he might express themselves.”

Bush said he had been deeply personally offended by some of the controversial works supported by the NEA that precipitated a political crisis for the arts agency.

“I am deeply offended by some of the filth that I see into which federal money has gone and some of the sacrilegious, blasphemous depictions that are portrayed by some to be art,” he said, “so I will speak strongly out opposed to that.” Bush also condemned what he described as “blasphemous material that has no business getting one cent of the taxpayers’ money.”

A White House spokesman acknowledged that the Bush proposal, announced Wednesday at a House subcommittee hearing by Frohnmayer, had precipitated a firestorm of protest by conservatives and fundamentalist Christian groups. The Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, who heads the Orange County-based Traditional Values Coalition, said conservatives were outraged by Bush’s action and determined to take their revenge.

“This is a back-burner issue in terms of world politics and national issues,” Sheldon said, “But it can create a big stink in the house if it burns pretty bad.”

However, said deputy White House press secretary Alixe Glen, “The President made a decision (to unequivocally support NEA legislation without content controls) and, at this point, only time will show those who are concerned that they have nothing to be concerned about.”

In a telephone interview, Frohnmayer said he was aware that Bush had found profoundly distasteful some of the artworks involved in the NEA controversy. “I think that, some of them, he finds personally very offensive,” Frohnmayer said, “but I think he has indicated he has some confidence in the procedures we have established. I will do everything I can to justify that.”

The White House specifically branded as “wrong” a statement by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Lomita) late Thursday in which Rohrabacher said that, as a result of a conversation with White House Chief of Staff John Sununu, he had persuaded the Administration to issue a “clarification” of its position on arts funding.

Glen said no statement was in the works and the only additional Administration comment was a brief statement released by Frohnmayer that reiterated the Administration’s opposition to content controls on the arts endowment, but also repeated a commitment to refrain from funding strictly obscene arts projects.

“I will be diligent that obscenity will not be funded by the endowment,” Frohnmayer said. But, he said, “I believe it is inappropriate for Congress to micro-manage the endowment through additional legislation.”

Frohnmayer declined to give details of the process by which Bush had been persuaded to support the proposed NEA reauthorizing bill, but The Times learned that getting the President to support leaving the NEA free to make its own judgments about artistic merit was a product of personal persuasion by Frohnmayer and two key arts supporters who are also close friends of the President and First Lady Barbara Bush.

They are Republican New York State Sen. Roy Goodman and Jocelyn Levi Straus, a Texas arts patron and longtime personal friend of the Bush family. Both are members of the National Council on the Arts, the NEA’s 26-member advisory board, where Goodman--the newest appointee and the only one directly made by Bush--has become one of the council’s most impassioned defenders of artistic freedom.

Reached at his New York City office, Goodman denied he had any direct role in Bush’s decision though Straus said there was “no doubt” Goodman had been influential. Goodman said he greeted Bush’s decision “with enthusiasm and appreciation.”

“I am a personal friend,” of the Bushes, Straus said, “and certainly know that they are in tune with what is going on and are proud of the work that’s been done with the National Endowment for the Arts in the last 25 years.

“I know that (Bush perceives) John Frohnmayer (as a) very astute leader. It gives the President confidence that the NEA and the national council are going to be acting very responsibly.”

Times Staff Writer David Lauter in Washington contributed to the research of this article.