Sununu Under Attack From Bush Allies : Infighting: White House response to political woes has unleashed new criticism. President’s backers seek control over reelection bid, sources say.

Increasing Republican discomfort with the way the White House has responded to President Bush’s political troubles has rekindled sharp criticism of Chief of Staff John H. Sununu and set off new sparring for control of Bush’s reelection campaign, according to well-placed GOP sources.

The new rounds of sniping reflect a sense of panic that has gripped prominent Republican circles in recent weeks and has prompted key members of the likely Bush campaign team to challenge Sununu’s insistence that he retain authority over the President’s public schedule, the officials say.

At least one key member of that team, Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher, was said by two sources to have prevailed upon George Bush Jr. to warn his father that he was not being well-served by Sununu. Other longtime Bush strategists have told colleagues that they will demand a voice over the Bush calendar as a condition of taking charge of the race.

“We’re heading toward some sort of showdown,” one well-placed Republican source warned.

In part, the internecine fighting is a product of a hostility toward Sununu that has never been more than thinly veiled. It has now flared anew among Bush allies who contend that the White House has blundered in its reaction to new economic and political woes.

They blame the hasty cancellation of a Bush trip to Asia for contributing to a perception of panic in the ranks. And the message delivered by the White House since, they complain, has seemed to minimize the extent of the nation’s economic plight.

“There is a perception building among political appointees of the President that those around George Bush don’t understand how severe the economic problems are in this country,” one senior Administration official said.

But sources said that the principal cause of unease is the sudden recognition among Republicans that Bush is now vulnerable to Democratic opposition--and might even be bruised by a Republican primary challenger.

“There are a lot of pregame jitters going on,” conceded one prominent Republican strategist connected to the White House. “With the economy bad and the Democrats looking strong, there are a lot of people pointing their finger.”

Among the longtime Bush loyalists said by sources to have expressed concern about the role played by Sununu are Mosbacher, strategist Robert S. Teeter and media adviser Roger Ailes. All played key roles in the 1988 campaign, and while Bush has not yet announced his 1992 campaign lineup, all are expected to assume principal positions.

None of the three returned telephone calls placed to them or their aides Wednesday. Bush, in a television interview, said reports of unhappiness with Sununu were “all crazy.”

Bush has been confronted for more than a month with an almost unbroken stream of bad news on the economy. The President’s standing in public opinion polls has dipped, and as a result the White House has accelerated its pace of campaign preparations.

Conservative commentator Patrick J. Buchanan on Wednesday affirmed that he is considering a challenge to Bush for the Republican nomination, adding further to the political pressure.

“If I do well in New Hampshire, my intention will be to go South and try to take this party back,” said Buchanan, who has sought to give voice to conservative discontent. “It will be to win.”

In complaints that have crisscrossed Republican power networks in recent weeks, the critics have pointed to Sununu as the official who first proposed that the Asia trip be canceled and complain that he has unwisely sheltered Bush from bad economic news.

A number of Bush advisers insisted in interviews that such attacks were unfair. “People don’t want to blame the President,” one White House official said, “so the chief of staff is the first one to get hit.”

Bush said Wednesday that he expects to announce his campaign lineup “quite soon.” But with his anxious loyalists still jockeying for position in what remains a shapeless structure, Republican sources said that the unease has been intensified by Sununu’s signals that he intends to maintain control about what the President says and where he goes.

Sununu insisted in a television interview Monday that he had no intention of running the Bush campaign. But he said that while campaign officials would “take care of the political side,” the White House intended to maintain control of the President’s schedule and policy statements--decisions crucial to any campaign strategy.

A Republican close to the White House said that the apparent insistence by Sununu that he occupy the central place in campaign decision-making had left the longtime Bush allies who have never been comfortable with the chief of staff particularly apprehensive.

“There is an uncomfortable feeling that putting the team together, with all of the team not getting along, is a recipe for it not working,” the key Republican said.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, echoing the President, insisted that reports of dissension were “of course, crazy.” One top GOP strategist said the longtime Bush loyalists expected only that Sununu would agree to share election-year decision-making with top campaign officials.

Such a system prevailed under then-Chief of Staff James A. Baker III during the Ronald Reagan reelection campaign in 1984 and under Dick Cheney during President Gerald Ford’s failed bid for a second term eight years earlier. But a well-placed Republican source conceded that it was still unclear whether Sununu would agree to such an arrangement.

“I don’t deny that some people might have some uneasiness about it,” the strategist said.

None of the Republicans who criticized Sununu would agree to be named. But several officials on Wednesday were happy to express privately their delight that Sununu was coming under fire again.

“I think he’s made an effort to be much more pleasant to people lately, trying to be more decent and cheerful personally,” one Administration official said, “but he’s just alienated too many people, and a sudden change in his demeanor doesn’t seem to be doing it.”

Staff writers James Gerstenzang, Jack Nelson and Robert Shogan contributed to this story.