‘92 REPUBLICAN CONVENTION : Bush Blasts at Congress May Hit GOP Too : Strategy: The President hopes to pin government failures on lawmakers. That makes some incumbent Republicans uneasy.

In his effort to imitate Harry S. Truman’s successful 1948 comeback bid by blaming Congress for his Administration’s failures, President Bush has chosen a strategy that has had little impact on public opinion in the past and could put other incumbent Republicans at risk.

The Congress-bashing that Bush employed so forcefully in his acceptance speech Thursday night was designed to tap into what polls show is a deep reservoir of dissatisfaction among Americans over Congress’ failure to cure the nation’s social and economic ills.

In a preview of a theme he will repeat throughout the campaign, Bush accused the “gridlock Democratic Congress” of betraying his trust over the past four years. “I extended my hand to the Democratic leaders and they bit it,” he said.

Although all presidents blame Congress, Republican leaders say Bush plans to unleash an attack so forceful that it could only be compared to Truman’s famous “Give ‘em hell” campaign of 1948. Bush is said to believe that by rousing anti-Congress sentiment he can achieve the same come-from-behind victory over Democrat Bill Clinton that Truman won over Republican Thomas Dewey.

“Historically, there has always been a tendency of presidents to run against Congress,” Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa) said. “So you might say, ‘Ho hum, what’s new about this?’ But believe me, this is going to be a quantum escalation of the kind of Congress-bashing we’ve seen in the recent past.”

Bush argues that he cannot be blamed for the nation’s economic ills because domestic problems are primarily the responsibility of Congress. At the same time, he notes that the United States has recently succeeded in foreign policy, which is the realm of the President.

He insists that his only failure as President has been to sit quietly by when Congress has rejected his proposals for economic and social renewal. And he pledges that, if he is granted a second term, he will fight harder against congressional opposition by appealing directly to the American people for support.

In the past, Bush has made a number of speeches in which he attacked Congress. But aides acknowledge that none of these attacks have succeeded in improving the President’s popularity in comparison to Congress.

For example, in a Times nationwide survey of 1,146 voters conducted in mid-August, 52% blamed Congress a “great deal” or a “good amount” for the nation’s economic problems, but 58% blamed the President.

Furthermore, Bush has adopted a Congress-bashing strategy despite the strong misgivings of some incumbent Republican legislators who are facing tough reelection battles in November and who fear that, if the President succeeds in stirring up more anti-Congress sentiment, it will defeat them as well as members of the Democratic majority.

“There are some Republicans that are obviously concerned about that,” said Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), who does not face reelection until 1994. “It’s dangerous this year to be an incumbent of either party. I’m just glad I’m not up for reelection this year.”

An opponent of proposals to limit the terms of members of Congress, Lott said he also feared that Bush’s Congress-bashing would give impetus to the many campaigns to enact these limits in states around the nation.

But Lott and many other Republican members of Congress attending the GOP convention also understand the need for Bush to put them at risk to salvage the White House.

“You’ve got to take the risk; it’s so important that Congress be flushed,” Lott said.

Some Republican incumbents are so frustrated at having been in the minority in the House since 1952 that they are willing to support any effort that would shake up the status quo in Congress, even if it hurts the chamber’s longtime GOP members.

Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) said the Republican minority in Congress is like a platoon of soldiers who, when they are being overrun by the enemy, call on their own comrades to fire on their position. “We are calling on the President to fire on our position, and the mortar fire is coming down on both Republicans and Democrats,” he said.

But many of the incumbent Republicans most likely to be harmed by Bush’s Congress-bashing strategy have demonstrated their objections by refusing to come to Houston. Before the convention, some vulnerable Republicans were quoted as saying they would stay home to distance themselves from Bush and from a possible Democratic landslide in November.

In an effort to protect GOP members of Congress, sources said, Bush will be careful to attack only the Democratic leadership, not Congress itself.

But other Republican speakers at the convention were not as careful to draw a distinction between the “good” Republicans and “bad” Democrats in Congress. Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, for example, offended some listeners Wednesday night when he compared members of Congress to common criminals.

“The average prison term for a convicted murderer in America is 6.5 years,” Robertson said. “The average tenure for a member of Congress is 13 years. We are giving early release to the wrong criminal class.”

Other speakers singled out some of their Democratic villains by name: House Speaker Thomas S. Foley of Washington, Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell of Maine, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois. And some linked Clinton, who is governor of Arkansas, to the Democratic leadership in Congress.

Jeanie Austin, co-chairman of the Republican National Committee, described Clinton, Foley and Mitchell as the “tax and spend trio.” She said: “The block-everything, do-nothing Democrats have ruled Congress longer than almost any dictator or king on Earth.”

Ironically, many of the speakers at the convention were themselves members of Congress, and some of them used the opportunity to bash the institution in which they serve. They seemed particularly fond of noting that the Democrats had kept their congressional leaders out of sight during their convention in New York in July.

As Bush’s strategists see it, his Congress-bashing enables the President to escape the charges being leveled at him by Clinton that he is standing in the way of the changes that the American people want in their government. Under the GOP strategy, the President portrays himself as the advocate for change and casts the Congress as the protector of the status quo.

In addition, by promising to get tougher on Congress, he can show voters how his second term might be different than his first.

“If George Bush can demonstrate that he has a plan and that it is the Congress that is saying ‘no’ to that plan, if he can demonstrate that he will lead by going over the heads of the Congress in the future, then I think Bush will be elected in November with a mandate for change,” said Kenneth M. Duberstein, former chief of staff for President Ronald Reagan.

Leach said Bush’s strategy will succeed because the public already has such a low opinion of Congress. “We are swimming downstream; we are not trying to create an issue,” he noted.

A Times survey conducted last January indicated that just 11% of Americans had a lot of confidence in Congress, whereas 45% had very little faith in it. This was the lowest percentage ever measured on that question by The Times or Gallup polls going back into the 1970s.

In addition, Leach argued that Bush raises “a valid issue” when he attacks Congress. “To me, the Congress is not accountable to the American people and that’s fair,” he said.

Could Bush’s Congress-bashing further erode the reputation of the institution? Most Republican members said they doubted whether Congress’ popularity could get much lower.

Times Poll Director John Brennan contributed to this story.