No Campaign ‘Sleaze,’ Bush Tells His Staff

In the midst of what he has called “the ugliest political year” he has ever seen, President Bush said Friday he has issued written instructions to his supporters “to stay out of the sleaze business,” and denied that his staff was in disarray.

In an unusually lengthy news conference, Bush presented a tour d’horizon --one that barely reached beyond U.S. borders--as he turned his attention to the range of domestic issues that critics say he neglected during his first three years in office.

Bush, who campaigned four years ago on the theme of becoming the “education President,” said that in a second term, education issues, once again, would top his list of domestic priorities.

The President also elaborated on an announcement earlier in the day of the first step in a federal experiment to encourage states to revise welfare programs. He approved a Wisconsin plan that imposes new limits on assistance for single women with more than one child and rewards those who marry.

Taking literally his campaign organization’s plan to follow a “Rose Garden strategy” this spring, in which he tries to reinforce his image as President by spending more time on official duties than on campaign appearances, Bush spent 52 minutes in the sun-drenched garden, fielding questions amid the blooming magnolias, crab apple trees and tulips.

The State Department even decided to forgo its daily briefing to avoid competing with Bush for news coverage.

The President, said campaign spokeswoman Torie Clarke, “just wanted to get out there and recap the week because he thought it was a good week and not everybody had noticed.”

Still, when he had finished, advisers were unhappy with the result, suggesting his long-running effort to improve communications with the voters had not yet matured.

“You don’t get up there and stand there for an hour unless you’ve got something to say,” said one adviser, complaining that there was “no real purpose,” no overriding message in the news conference.

The adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Bush had been upset by an article in the New York Times that said his oldest son, George W., had been called to Washington from his Texas home to look at such problems in the White House as speech writing, domestic policy and scheduling.

“It simply isn’t true,” Bush said of the report, adding at another point that “our new team is doing a good job.”

“When George comes here, of course he goes to the campaign and talks to people. But this isn’t some manifestation of dissatisfaction. And if I were dissatisfied, you’d know about it loud and clear,” the President said, finally ending discussion of the sensitive topic with a curt, “next question.”

Asked whether there was any truth to an assertion that the Republican Party was behind allegations about the personal life of Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, who has emerged as the probable Democratic presidential nominee, Bush said: “I hope not. I think not.”

“I’ve made specific instructions in writing to our people to stay out of the sleaze business,” the President said.

Clarke said Bush sent a letter to senior campaign and White House officials in late February, stating “very clearly and very firmly that sleazy campaign tactics of any type would not be tolerated.”

Another source, describing the letter as bluntly worded, said Bush referred to the “sludge” circulating about potential opponents and directed Campaign Chairman Robert S. Teeter and Campaign Manager Frederic V. Malek “not to have any part of it.”

He said Bush has “given the Cabinet more than one lecture on the subject.”

When asked whether “character” issues belonged in the campaign debate, Bush said: “I’d like to see it stay on the hard issues, and not on the kind of issues you are talking about.”

During the news conference, Bush also said:

--His top priority was improving education in the United States; because it would give the nation a competitive edge this would have an impact on its economic standing and “will lift a lot of kids out of this impoverished area.”

--He was undecided about legislation pending in Congress that would double the amount of money Social Security recipients age 65 to 69 may earn without losing benefits.

--He should have moved more quickly on welfare reform, which he generally ignored during his first three years in office. “I think that politics drives some things. I think we’ve tried to move forward in terms of helping people in these cities. I don’t think we’ve done absolutely nothing,” he said.

Times staff writer Douglas Jehl contributed to this story.