Clinton Assails Tsongas and His ‘Trickle-Down’ Plans : Campaign: Arkansas governor says ex-senator’s economic proposals would not benefit everyday workers. He has a surrogate attack Kerrey.

Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton came out swinging at his Democratic rivals Thursday, accusing Paul E. Tsongas of advocating “trickle-down economics” and bringing in a Vietnam veteran to accuse Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey of being “AWOL” in the war on drugs.

Meanwhile, Clinton sought to quell a controversy involving his angry televised outburst over a false report that civil rights leader Jesse Jackson had endorsed a presidential rival.

In a speech at the Radisson Hotel in Denver in the morning, Clinton dismissed former Massachusetts Sen. Tsongas’ economic proposals as smacking of “trickle-down economics.” He mocked Tsongas’ concern for investors and entrepreneurs, saying it comes at the expense of everyday workers.

“The problem is not on Wall Street, friends; it’s on Main Street,” Clinton said. “Franklin Roosevelt didn’t get this country off its back by saying the only thing we have to fear is a lack of venture capital.”

Referring to Tsongas’ opposition to a tax cut for the middle class, he said: “I’m tired of what is cold-blooded being passed off as courage.”

Tsongas retorted: “Is Bill Clinton now our resident expert on courage?”

To Clinton’s charge that he favored corporations over people, he said: “I grew up in Lowell, (Mass.). I do not need lectures from Bill Clinton or anyone on what decline’s all about. . . . I lived it. . . . My function in this race is to bring back the American economy.”

The tiffs came a day after Kerrey, a Vietnam veteran who won the Medal of Honor for heroism, accused Clinton of blaming others whenever his own conduct is questioned--specifically for the controversy over the governor’s Vietnam-era draft status. Kerrey said the Republicans would exploit the issue, making the Arkansas governor not electable.

In 1969, Clinton secured a draft deferment after he said he would enlist in an ROTC program at the University of Arkansas. He subsequently gave up the deferment but was never drafted.

Clinton’s fusillade against Kerrey came during a brief stop at the Atlanta airport, where he picked up the endorsements of Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson and Jim Wiggins, a Georgia district attorney and Vietnam veteran. Wiggins denounced Kerrey’s attack on Clinton, calling it “insulting to everyone . . . who fought in the Vietnam War.” Then he complained that Kerrey has been “AWOL” in the war on drugs.

“It’s a good thing that Bob Kerrey has a good record on the Vietnam War,” Wiggins said, “because he is not involved in fighting the war that we are currently in, the war on drugs.”

Kerrey, campaigning in Florida, counterattacked. He lambasted Clinton for suggesting that Kerrey did not support the Persian Gulf War after it began. Kerrey did vote against the prewar congressional resolution authorizing President Bush to use force against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.

Kerrey said Clinton himself has switched positions. “He’s flopped around on that issue like a fish on a deck. On Jan. 15 (1991), the day after the war vote itself, (Clinton) said, ‘I agree with the minority (in Congress who opposed the use of force).’ But, he said, ‘I probably would have voted for the war.’ I’d love to have a debate with Bill Clinton about the Persian Gulf War.”

The Jesse Jackson incident began late Wednesday in a television studio in Little Rock, Ark., where Clinton was conducting a series of campaign interviews with television stations across the country by satellite hookup. A South Carolina reporter told him that Jesse Jackson was endorsing Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin.

“It’s an outrage--a dirty, double-crossing, back-stabbing thing to do,” Clinton told an aide in what he thought was an off-camera conversation. However, Phoenix television station KTSP was waiting to interview him next, and the microphone was live. KTSP videotaped the remarks, which were broadcast throughout the nation Thursday morning.

“For him to do this, for me to hear this on a television program, is an act of absolute dishonor,” Clinton continued. “Everything he has bragged about, he has gushed to me about trust and trust and trust, and it’s a back-stabbing thing to do.”

The information was untrue; Jackson simply is scheduled to campaign with Harkin on Monday. Jackson, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988, is neutral this year and has offered to campaign with all of the candidates. So far, Clinton is the only one who has not taken him up on the offer.

In an interview on Cable News Network, Jackson said he was disappointed and disturbed by Clinton’s remarks.

“I am disappointed with his overreaction without verification,” Jackson said. “I am disturbed by the tone of the blast at my integrity, my character. . . . I feel blindsided by what I saw and heard him say.” Later, Jackson said he would like to meet Clinton face to face to discuss the matter.

Tsongas criticized Clinton’s angry reaction. “I think the American people want a President who’s cool under fire, and that kind of instinctive, angry, emotional outburst I don’t think is appropriate,” he said.

Clinton is counting heavily on the black vote in next Tuesday’s primaries in Georgia and Maryland; whether the incident with Jackson would hurt him was in dispute. But he moved swiftly to patch up their relationship. He told reporters he had telephoned Jackson to explain; one source said the call came at 2 a.m. Thursday.

“I had a good talk with him . . . it’s fine between us,” Clinton said as he flew to the campaign appearance in Atlanta. He said he would probably meet with the civil rights leader “pretty soon.”

“I didn’t fly off the handle, I just used strong words to describe how I felt at that moment,” he said.

Democratic primary voters go to the polls Tuesday in Georgia, where Clinton is leading, and in Maryland and Colorado, where he is trailing Tsongas. A week later, 10 states vote on Super Tuesday; that could determine a clear front-runner.

Georgia political observers were divided over whether the Jesse Jackson incident would hurt Clinton, particularly within the black community.

“It’s another event that . . . focuses the attention on the candidate and not the issues,” one source said. “Obviously, Jackson has great support in Georgia. He won Georgia in 1988, and this would not help, I would think, in the black community. If the other candidates spring to Jackson’s defense, they could get some leverage out of it.

But Joseph Lowery, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said that both Clinton and the news media overreacted.

“Bill probably should have checked it out before reacting,” Lowery said, but added: “I still want to see where he plans to lead the country. Just because he and Jesse Jackson had a disagreement, I don’t think that’s going to affect intelligent voters. . . . “

Clinton is scheduled to travel today to Seattle, Los Angeles and Denver, then return to Georgia and Maryland before Tuesday’s vote.

Times staff writers Sonni Efron in Atlanta and Dave Lesher in Florida contributed to this story.