Democrats Follow Clinton Blueprint on Draft Platform : Politics: Document bumps the party closer to the center in a counterstep to Perot’s anti-government appeal to voters.

A drafting committee on Saturday cleared the way for eventual adoption of a 1992 Democratic platform that echoes the campaign rhetoric of presumptive presidential nominee Bill Clinton and represents the party’s sharpest break yet with its liberal tradition of government activism.

In substance and tone, the document was shaped by Clinton’s determination to find a more centrist creed on which to campaign to reverse the Democratic record of defeat in all but one of the last six presidential elections. It also reflects anxiety among Clinton strategists that unless the Arkansas governor can match the anti-government rhetoric of Ross Perot, the Texan’s expected independent bid for the White House will attract the bulk of voters dissatisfied with President Bush.

Written by Washington lawyer and Clinton supporter John Holum, the draft document declares in its preamble: “We can no longer afford . . . new programs and new spending without new thinking. We call for a revolution in government--to take power away from the entrenched bureaucracies and narrow interests in Washington and put it back in the hands of communities, families and citizens.”

The document rejects “the Republican proposition that government has no role.”

But given its frequent denunciations of the federal bureaucracy and its reference to business as “a noble endeavor,” Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) acknowledged: “Some parts of this document could have been written by the Republican National Committee.”

Lieberman, the chief Clinton spokesman on the drafting panel, added: “But that’s good. We have to be willing to accept ideas from wherever they come from, if they work.”

Conspicuous by its absence was the proposed middle-class income tax cut that has been a mainstay of Clinton’s economic message. Clinton representatives on the drafting committee offered no explanation for the omission.

But one possible reason was to avoid a fight with a drafting committee member representing former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas, a Clinton rival for the nomination who opposed the tax cut. The Tsongas ally, Ted Van Dyk, said he was prepared to object to the proposal if it had been included.

The document embraces the traditional Democratic belief that the federal government needs to act to spur economic growth, particularly by encouraging the creation of new jobs. It also promises to enact “a uniquely American reform of the health care system” that would cover all citizens. It also renews the party’s commitment to civil rights, including support for affirmative-action hiring programs, and repeats the party’s historic backing of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade ruling, which established the right to abortion.

The 25-member drafting committee, appointed by Democratic National Chairman Ronald H. Brown and dominated by Clinton loyalists, spent two days discussing Holum’s 22-page “working paper.”

Not everyone was satisfied with his work.

Mary Frances Berry, a longtime Democratic activist and member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, complained that the document did not sufficiently reflect “the pain” that the recession has caused millions of Americans. And the draft’s tone, she said, does not adequately address “the concerns of our bedrock constituency.”

Others called for more emphasis on housing and the homeless.

But under the procedure for the meeting established by New Mexico Rep. Bill Richardson, no formal amendments were submitted and no votes were taken. Instead, criticisms and suggestions were referred to the drafting committee staff and to Holum.

Richardson said the document will be tightened and sharpened and then submitted to the 186-member platform committee in Washington on June 27.

Party Chairman Brown said he did not expect that that meeting would produce “hard-edged debate” or any significant changes in the document.

That harmonious prospect was threatened by former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr., who in remarks to the drafting panel Saturday vowed to fight to get the platform’s final version to reflect some of the ideas he advocated in his presidential campaign.

Among the points he cited was opposition to the proposed free-trade agreement for North America.

Referring to the roughly 600 delegates he won during the campaign, Brown said: “I don’t believe they are going to (the party’s July national convention in New York) to be extras in a B political movie.”

During his appearance before the committee, Jerry Brown heard an impassioned plea from Steven Grossman, chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, on the need for party unity to aid Clinton. Brown did not respond.

Asked later whether he would endorse Clinton, he said: “I came here for a platform drafting session only.”

In its plan of action for dealing with the nation’s ills, the draft document disparages both the alleged indifference of Republicans and the “tax and spend” policies of traditional Democratic liberalism. The document proposes a “third way” that it claimed would bring “prosperity, justice and happiness.”

Specific proposals, virtually all of which are staples of Clinton’s campaign, include:

--Reforming welfare to ensure that those able to work do not stay on the rolls indefinitely. Welfare should only be “a promise of temporary help for people who have fallen on hard times,” the document says.

--Limiting new spending to a “pay-as-you-go” rule.

--Providing an investment tax credit for all firms and a targeted capital-gains tax cut for long-term investors in new business.