Bush Guts Laws Helping Environment, Gore Says

Pressing his assault against the Bush Administration Monday, Tennessee Sen. Al Gore charged that the President “has turned his back on the environment” and is “gutting” environmental-protection laws.

On the second day of a three-day Western campaign swing, the Democratic vice presidential nominee hammered away at the dominant theme of his campaign in recent days: that the search for ways and technologies to clean up the environment can create “millions” of jobs.

Gore’s unwavering focus on “economic environmentalism,” as one senior campaign aide called it, is a convenient marriage of two of the major themes of the Democratic ticket for the White House: jobs and the environment.

To the extent that the dual theme blunts the GOP’s prediction of widespread job loss under the environmental policies of a Bill Clinton and Al Gore Administration, the Tennessee senator has not deviated from his stump speech on the subject.

“If the pathway to a strong economy is trashing the environment, the way Bush and Quayle think, you’d expect Eastern Europe to be an economic powerhouse,” he said while touring the American Brass and Iron Foundry in Oakland. “But instead they are an environmental and an economic basket case.”

Gore added: “They are posing this phony choice between jobs and the environment. They haven’t done a good job with either.”

As Gore campaigned in Oakland and then attended a rally at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, his wife, Mary Elizabeth (Tipper), made solo appearances in Fresno and in Orange County.

Nearly 1,000 enthusiastic supporters turned out in Laguna Hills to hear Tipper Gore. Senior citizens packed the largest auditorium at Leisure World’s gated retirement community, where Republican registered voters outnumber Democrats nearly 2 to 1.

“I know we can do better,” Mrs. Gore told the rally. “It’s not that Vice President Dan Quayle and President Bush are bad people; they’re not. It’s just that things are not working well for them and they just have a different philosophical approach.”

She promoted the Democrats’ health care program and a family leave bill, relating her own family’s experience when the Gores’ son was struck by a car and nearly killed in 1989.

Mrs. Gore said the people of Tennessee granted her husband more than a month away from his job to be with his family during the crisis.

“We needed him to be there,” she said. “In intensive care, we were sharing the room with other parents who were . . . worried about getting a day of vacation or getting a relative to come in and be with their child. It was hard, and that’s not right.”

She chastised Bush for his 1990 veto of the family leave bill, which would have required employers to provide workers with emergency time off.

Local Democratic officials said they organized the Laguna Hills event with barely 48 hours’ notice and most were pleased--and surprised--by the turnout. They also emphasized the attendance of several Republican voters who have switched their support from the Republican Party. One sign in the audience read, “Republicans for Clinton/Gore.”

Unlike other areas of the country, however, several of the elderly residents said the economy is not the driving issue for Leisure World’s relatively affluent and retired population of about 20,000. Instead, they cited other social issues, such as health care.

Chen reported from Oakland, Lesher from Laguna Hills.