Clinton and Tsongas Go on Offensive in Midwest : Democrats: Candidates attack each other’s beliefs, records as focus shifts to key Michigan, Illinois contests.

Democratic presidential candidates Bill Clinton and Paul E. Tsongas dropped all pretense of collegiality and went on the attack Wednesday, questioning each other’s beliefs and records.

They even tried to blame each other for aspects of the savings and loan debacle.

One day after Clinton’s sweep of the South on Super Tuesday, Tsongas called the Arkansas governor the party’s “most vulnerable” candidate against the Republicans in November. “How many people do you think the Republicans have out there investigating Bill Clinton’s background?” he asked. “There are armies of people. . . . Whatever vulnerabilities I have are on the issues. They are not vulnerabilities on character or judgment.”

Clinton, meanwhile, played up issues that he considers Tsongas’ vulnerabilities. Launching his primary campaigns in Illinois and Michigan on the morning after his victories in eight states, Clinton revived a television ad that his advisers believe contributed to his sizable win in Florida.

Illinois and Michigan vote this Tuesday, offering Tsongas a chance to revive his sagging candidacy and Clinton the opportunity to deal another blow to his two remaining rivals. Tsongas won only his home state of Massachusetts and Rhode Island and Delaware Tuesday. On Wednesday, he conceded he must do better here in the Midwest.

Former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. stumped across Michigan, staking his hopes on the labor movement, students, environmentalists and those who have shunned the political process out of despair over its integrity. Undeterred by his winless Super Tuesday, Brown was up before dawn to shake hands with workers at a Cadillac parts plant in Detroit. In 10-degree weather, he wore his customary turtleneck and a United Auto Workers jacket--along with an overcoat to fend off the wind chill.

But Brown did not hide his appeal to union members. He contended that American jobs are jeopardized by the Bush Administration’s efforts to establish a “fast-track” free trade agreement with Mexico. And he reiterated his constant criticism of the corrosive effect of money on the political process.

In Chicago, Clinton concentrated his fire on Tsongas by reviving his Florida strategy. Quoting from the former Massachusetts senator’s book “An Economic Call to Arms,” Clinton’s ad suggests that Tsongas would cut Social Security benefits, raise gas taxes and build more nuclear power plants. “I’m trying to let the people know the difference between Sen. Tsongas and myself,” Clinton said during a joint press conference with Mayor Richard M. Daley. “My ad uses his words. We use his book. He is putting out hundreds and hundreds of copies of that book . . . and he doesn’t want to be held accountable.”

Clinton was asked how he would answer the concerns of conservative Roman Catholic ethnic voters in Chicago who may be uneasy about allegations of marital infidelity and a controversy over his Vietnam-era draft status. He replied that he had received supportive letters from both the past and current presidents of Georgetown University, a Jesuit school that he attended.

“Both wrote me very moving letters in the aftermath of the trials which I endured,” he said. “They reminded me that the true test of character is not perfection. If it were, no one could pass. The true test of character is admitting your mistakes, learning from them, seeking forgiveness for them and going on with your life.”

Tsongas kicked off his Illinois-Michigan campaign with questions about Clinton’s record on the environment and workplace safety, as well as his involvement with a business partner in a failed Arkansas savings and loan.

“In the last analysis, people are going to want somebody who’s electable,” Tsongas said Wednesday at a vocational high school in Chicago.

Speaking earlier in the day to reporters as he flew from his hometown of Lowell, Mass., to Chicago, Tsongas said that he will not comment on Clinton’s personal life, but endorsed Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey’s assertion that Clinton is unelectable. “I share that view,” Tsongas said, adding that character and judgment will be important in the general election.

Kerrey, who bowed out of the Democratic race last week, had tried to make an issue of Clinton’s electability.

When Tsongas arrived in Detroit Wednesday night, he was asked why he believes that Clinton is unelectable. Tsongas cited “two basic reasons”--Clinton’s “Santa Claus economic package” and “all these stories which accumulate,” referring to the allegations of marital infidelity and the draft controversy.

On his campaign plane earlier, Tsongas cited what he called Clinton’s “S&L; caper,” referring to a story in the Sunday New York Times. The story said that Clinton and his wife, Hillary, became partners in a real estate investment with a Little Rock, Ark., developer who later took control of a state-chartered savings and loan that failed. The article said the Clintons stood to make a lot of money despite investing little, and that Clinton as governor appointed a former lawyer for the developer to a state position regulating S&Ls; when the developer’s thrift became insolvent.

On Sunday, Clinton released several statements from people casting doubt on many of the details in the story--and the paper’s main source told an Arkansas newspaper that the Clintons did nothing wrong. Among other things, Clinton noted that the partnership began before he became governor and before the developer acquired the S&L;, that the regulator was appointed before the S&L; became troubled and that he and his wife had been liable for more than $200,000 in loans to the partnership and had lost $25,000 on the deal.

Tsongas had said earlier in the week that the story raised questions Clinton would have to answer. On Wednesday, he toughened his evaluation. “The S&L; crisis is a major issue, not (just) among Democrats, but to take against George Bush,” Tsongas said at William Harper High School in South Side Chicago.

“But if you have a candidate who has a business relationship with someone you regulated, that issue is rendered moot. That’s not the strongest candidate against George Bush.”

Told of Tsongas’ statements, Clinton replied: “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of. Look at the facts. We tried to close that S&L; for three years before the federal government did. I’m disappointed to see him (Tsongas) doing something like that without regard to the facts.”

Clinton campaign aides--who declined to be identified--supplied reporters with a copy of a letter written in the early 1980s by James J. Butera, vice president of the National Council of Savings Institutions. Butera credited Tsongas with being among the first members of the Senate to propose legislation that deregulated the thrift industry. His proposal did not become law, but it was later incorporated into the 1982 act that deregulated the thrift industry. The law opened the industry to abuses that led to the $500-billion collapse.

The S&L; issue was not expected to be a major one in this campaign in any event, because Democrats as well as Republicans could be considered liable.

In addition to attacking Clinton, Tsongas made a new effort to get out his own message. Some observers had speculated that his disappointing performance in Florida had as much to do with his neglect of his own proposals as with Clinton’s criticisms of him. Tsongas said his plan for economic recovery depends on “hard choices.”

“I’m not Santa Claus,” he said. “I’m not the Mardi Gras king.”

Early Wednesday, Tsongas grimly telegraphed his attack strategy in the remaining primaries. Saying that Clinton had distorted his record and harmed him on Super Tuesday, he said: “We have to be tougher. The negative advertising and distortions of my record had an impact.”

Later, he smiled wryly when asked if he felt uncomfortable with such aggressive tactics. “You’d be surprised how you can evolve in this business,” he said.

Times staff writer Jonathan Peterson contributed to this story.