POLITICAL BRIEFING

BLAMING BUSH: The Democrats may have a more difficult time than they expected blaming President Bush for the country’s domestic ills during the coming presidential campaign, their top strategists concede.

Private polls conducted for the party hierarchy have shown that relatively few Americans blame Bush for such problems. Asked who controls the government, nearly 10 times as many respondents said Congress as cited the President.

The polls surprised party strategists, who had hoped to find grist for making a campaign issue of Bush’s weak interest in domestic matters. Instead, one analyst complained, Democrats will have to spend much of their time early next year trying to re-establish the notion that a President can do something about domestic problems. “One of the successes (Ronald) Reagan and Bush have had is they have . . . made the claim a President is pretty helpless in domestic problems, that there is nothing they can do,” said one Democrat familiar with the data. “A lot of people say it doesn’t matter who is elected President, in terms of domestic problems, so a lot of the debate goes over their head--it’s just not relevant to them.”

THE NEW, NEW GEPHARDT? House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) is moving to reclaim his mantle as leader of his party’s tough-on-trade contingent--a position he would need should he decide to seek the Democratic presidential nomination next year.

Although the sometimes-strident Missourian seemed to be moderating last month, when he backed President Bush’s request for fast-track trade negotiating authority on the U.S.-Mexican Free Trade Agreement, he is now planning to introduce a new version of the famous “Gephardt Amendment,” which would mandate U.S. retaliation against any foreign trading partner found to be discriminating against U.S. exports.

The first Gephardt Amendment, which passed the House twice but was watered down substantially in the 1988 trade bill, called for stiff tariffs on imports from trading partners who were declared to be “unfair.” The new version, still being drafted, would instead require that imports from offending countries be subjected to the same non-tariff restrictions--such as excessive customs inspections--that those countries often impose on exports from the United States.

SUE ME: Some Democrats are pondering a new way to exploit charges that the Reagan-Bush campaign conspired with Iran to delay release of American hostages until after the 1980 election.

With a House staff inquiry into the episode yet to uncover hard evidence, these strategists think the courts offer a better chance for turning the matter into a major political embarrassment for the GOP. As a precedent, they cite the civil suit by victims of the Watergate bugging brought against President Richard M. Nixon’s reelection campaign organization, which helped lay the groundwork for further probes into that massive scandal.

One possibility being considered is a class-action suit on behalf of the former hostages against the Republican National Committee, as agent for the GOP presidential campaign. Washington lawyer Ben Zelenko, an expert in such litigation, figures the damage awards the 52 U.S. hostages could seek as compensation for the extra time they would have spent in captivity--if the charges against the Reagan-Bush camp are proven true--would run well into the millions of dollars--high enough to grab plenty of media attention.