Clinton Backs Hurricane Relief Inquiry : Politics: Democratic candidate says charges of slow federal response should be investigated. His comments draw angry response from Bush camp.

Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton waded gingerly Saturday into the brewing controversy over the Bush Administration’s response to the destruction wreaked by Hurricane Andrew, saying that a inquiry into the federal government’s actions was warranted.

Clinton avoided direct criticism of President Bush and contended that he did not want to “politicize” the issue of the federal response to the disaster. But he opened the door to suggestions that he was doing just that.

“What I think ought to be done at the appropriate time is that there should be an analysis of the charges made by the people in Florida, that, you know, (federal officials) were two, three days too slow in bringing in people” to provide disaster relief, the Arkansas governor said.

Added Clinton, whose state has endured its share of damaging tornadoes: “I know a lot about emergency management. It is not easy, and it takes a lot of attention to detail and constancy because you can’t imagine, until you’re in the middle of (a natural disaster), all the things that need to be done at a time like that.”

Bush, asked later in the day about the remarks by his Democratic foe, said: “I don’t respond to Gov. Clinton on these matters. We have a national emergency here, and we’ve here and we’re trying to get this job done.”

But a spokeswomen for the Bush reelection team responded angrily to Clinton’s comments.

“It is appalling that he would exploit what is a very serious incident,” said Torie Clarke, the campaign press secretary.

The two contentious campaigns also sparred for the second straight day about Clinton’s record on the politically sensitive subject of taxes.

Clinton aides continued to slam Bush and other Republicans for claiming that the governor has raised taxes a total of 128 times in his state, asserting that the statement is a deliberate misrepresentation of the record.

The list has been analyzed by many news organizations, including The Times, that have found it appears to exaggerate Clinton’s record on taxes. And under the same formula Republicans applied to Clinton, Bush’s claims that he raised taxes only once underrepresents his total.

But the Bush campaign on Saturday continued to defend its contention that Clinton has raised taxes 128 times--and suggested that the real total is higher.

Clinton’s comments on the Administration’s handling of the relief effort in the wake of the hurricane came two days after Florida officials castigated the federal government for delivering aid too slowly.

Clinton did not say who should be charged with reviewing the relief efforts. But in brief remarks to reporters after a speech here, he also announced that Arkansas was beginning a volunteer effort to aid the citizens of Louisiana, a neighboring state that was also hit by the hurricane.

At Clinton’s order, six Army National Guard armories have been opened to receive canned food, clothing, diapers and bottled water, which will be dispersed in the affected areas.

“I hope we can play a constructive role in helping the people there,” Clinton said.

The governor’s somewhat tentative response to questions about Bush’s handling of the hurricane relief efforts contrasted sharply with his campaign’s aggressive and continuing denunciation of criticisms of his tax record.

That dust-up began more than a week ago, when Bush made the claim in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention that Clinton had raised taxes or fees 128 times while he had done it only once--in the massive 1990 budget compromise in which the President renounced his “no new taxes” pledge.

Clinton on Friday slammed Bush and other Republicans for repeating the statistics, even after the various news organizations had raised questions about their accuracy. And on Saturday his aides continued to put pressure on the Bush campaign.

“The Republicans will do anything, they will say anything, to keep the American people’s minds off their problems, to make sure the American people do not know what’s happened to them in the last 12 years,” George Stephanopoulos, Clinton’s communications director, told reporters.

While accusing Bush of misrepresenting the facts about the governor’s record, Clinton and his aides continued Saturday to dance around the semantics of that charge. They again refused to characterize the President as a liar, although their complaints imply that charge.

During the 10 months of his campaign, Clinton has said that he will raise taxes on wealthy Americans--whom he defines as making $200,000 annually--and on corporations. He initially proposed a tax cut for the middle class, which he later scaled back with the explanation that such a move would make it impossible to tackle the deficit.

Clinton spent Saturday accepting the plaudits of his fellow Arkansans. At midday, he traveled to an auditorium in Little Rock to speak before a raucous convention of the state Democratic Party.

The governor, introduced to a roar from the crowd of home-state partisans, ridiculed the GOP for the conservative leanings of its recent convention in Houston.

“They tried to say they were the party on God’s side and we weren’t,” he said. “. . . Our founders knew that God was not a Republican or a Democrat, a liberal or a conservative, and that nobody had a monopoly on religion or patriotism.

“That’s how our country got started. How dare they try to change it now?”