Democrats’ Offensive Targets Tax Switch, S&Ls; Issues : Politics: Party leaders gather as the dual assault on Bush and the GOP is unveiled. Some worry that the tough new strategy may go too far.

Democratic Party leaders, gathered here this weekend from around the country, are planning a double-barreled offensive against President Bush for reneging on his no-new-taxes campaign promise and on the GOP for its handling of the savings and loan scandal.

“We’re going to take off the gloves,” national chairman Ron Brown told the opening session of the summer conference of the Assn. of State Democratic Chairs here Friday, only a few hours after Bush tried to defend his switch on taxes in a nationally televised press conference.

Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee research staff put the finishing touches on a strategy memorandum for distribution to the state party officials and Democratic candidates. A draft version made available to the press urges Democrats to emphasize that the Bush Administration “is failing to make the S&L; crooks pay,” that the Administration’s bailout plan is unfair and that Democrats offer their own plan “to make sure that these problems will never happen again.”

Party strategists see the linkage of the tax hike and savings and loan issues as made to order for them this campaign year as they strive to maintain their control of Congress and most of the nation’s statehouses.

The combination allows them to challenge the Republicans on what is supposed to be their strongest ground--stewardship of the nation’s economy. “The issue here is fiscal mismanagement,” said Ohio chairman Jim Ruvolo, president of the state chairs association.

At the same time, the dual controversies also help the Democrats to emphasize the sort of bread-and-butter concerns and populist rhetoric which have traditionally been their stock in trade. “I think just saying we ought to put these crooks in jail is a good issue for Democrats,” Bob Slagle, Texas party chairman, said of the savings and loan issue.

To be sure, the Democrats face some obstacles in implementing this strategic blueprint. On the tax issue, party leaders acknowledge the need for a measure of restraint because they are still trying to live down their own reputation as the party of tax hikes, which hurt them so seriously during the 1980s.

“Some Democratic governors have had to ask for tax increases, too,” Ruvolo pointed out in suggesting that Democrats need to seem constructive in responding to Bush’s fiscal change of heart. “If we can appear more fiscally responsible, that’s what the American people want,” Ruvolo said. “The party that doesn’t appear fiscally responsible is the one that is going to get hurt.”

Still, Democrats maintain that Bush’s willingness to consider a tax increase would shield their state and local officeholders who have backed tax increases from attacks by Republican challengers.

The savings and loan issue also poses problems for Democrats because some of their prominent officeholders have been embroiled in that controversy in one way or another. Ties to the thrift industry made former House Speaker Jim Wright of Texas and former House Majority Whip Tony Coelho of California vulnerable to charges of unethical behavior which led to their resignations from Congress last year.

In addition, four Democratic senators, Alan Cranston of California, Dennis DeConcini of Arizona, John Glenn of Ohio and Donald W. Riegle Jr. of Michigan, have come under fire because of their links to controversial savings and loan operator Charles H. Keating.

The criticism of the Democratic connection to the scandal has been extensive enough that Paul Goldman, Virginia state party chairman, objects to a resolution submitted by national chairman Brown to the executive committee of the national party, putting the blame for the scandal solely on the faulty supervision and the economic philosophy of “two successive Republican administrations.”

“The Democrats make a terrible mistake by saying it’s totally the Republicans fault,” he said of the resolution which the executive committee is expected to approve at its meeting here today. “The media knows that’s not true and so does the public, and we’ll lose our credibility,” he added. Goldman advocates creating a nonpartisan commission to investigate the root causes of the scandal and calculate its ultimate cost.

But Brown shrugged off this criticism. “Of course the Democrats bear some responsibility,” he said. “But if you measure who is really responsible and on whose watch it has occurred, it was this Administration which is responsible for enforcing the laws of this country.”

Driving home the populist thrust of the Democratic attack, in a speech prepared for delivery to today’s executive committee meeting, Brown argues that Bush refused to call for a tax increase to raise funds for a range of domestic needs such as helping the homeless, increasing federal aid to education, bolstering the nation’s infrastructure or cleaning up the environment.

“This summer, though, we have found the one cause for which George Bush is willing to break his ‘no-new-taxes’ pledge,” Brown said, “the bankers and speculators who ran the savings and loan industry into the ground.”