Gorbachev Losing Respect in U.S., 2 Lawmakers Say : Lithuania: But Foley and Dole believe the Administration should go ahead with the summit.

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s crackdown in Lithuania has cost him most of the respect that his reformist policies had produced among members of Congress, two of Capitol Hill’s top leaders said Sunday.

However, House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) and Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said the Administration should go ahead with plans for a Washington summit meeting next month between Gorbachev and President Bush despite Moscow’s escalating pressure on Lithuania.

Asked in a television interview to assess congressional attitudes toward Gorbachev, Dole said, “A lot of us have sort of put him on hold.

“I think as long as things were coming the way we thought they should come with glasnost, perestroika, democracy breaking out everywhere, Gorbachev was pretty high on the (congressional) priority list,” Dole continued. “He’s going back on his word in Lithuania, and a lot of us are having second thoughts and doubts about Gorbachev.”

However, Foley and Dole, interviewed on ABC’s “This Week with David Brinkley,” rejected a proposal by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Dante B. Fascell (D-Fla.) to postpone or cancel the May 30-June 3 summit.

“If it (the summit) is in our interest, let’s proceed,” Dole said.

Fascell, interviewed on Cable News Network, said this is the wrong time for Bush to be meeting Gorbachev.

“Don’t give the world stage at this point in time to a leader who is fighting the independence of the Baltic states,” Fascell said.

Both Dole and Foley called on the U.S. government to break off trade talks with Moscow until the crisis caused by Lithuania’s independence bid is settled.

“I think those things that are strongly in our interest or our mutual interest we should continue to pursue,” Foley said. “Those things that would be primarily beneficial to the Soviet Union, I think we can slow up on.”

However, both lawmakers said it would be pointless to discuss U.S. economic aid to Lithuania because Washington would have no way to deliver the assistance to the breakaway republic.

“I think what you’re going to have is an international hand-wringing conference one of these days,” Dole said. “All of the countries are going to get together and say, ‘We sympathize with Lithuania, but what can we “

On a related topic, Dole said Congress may soon vote to impose economic sanctions against China if the Beijing government does not ease its repression of pro-democracy activists. Congress enacted such sanctions last year, but Bush vetoed the legislation.

“I was one of those who stood with President Bush in sustaining the veto on sanctions,” Dole said. “(But) unless . . . something happens soon on the part of the government in China, it would seem to me that Congress might be back at it again.”