Clinton Accuses Bush of Alliance With ‘Right-Wingers’ : Democrats: He mocks President’s contention that criticism of candidate’s anti-war activities was from the heart.

Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, in a carefully moderated reaction to President Bush’s continued criticism of his youthful anti-war activities, charged Friday that the President’s statements stem not from a moral disagreement but from a desperate alliance with “extreme right-wingers.”

Speaking briefly to reporters on a day dominated by preparations for Sunday’s first presidential debate, the Democratic presidential nominee mocked Bush’s assertion that his criticism of Clinton “expressed what was on my heart.”

The Times reported Friday that Bush’s strategy was carefully orchestrated at a meeting involving the President, Chief of Staff James A. Baker III and four conservative Republican congressmen, including Robert K. Dornan of Garden Grove and Randy (Duke) Cunningham of San Diego.

“It is now obvious from the press reports that far from speaking from his heart he was speaking from a prescribed political strategy . . . cooked up in the White House by Robert Dornan and other extreme right-wingers,” Clinton said.

“He turned the Republican Convention over to the far right for two days; now he is apparently going to turn his campaign over to that. It’s very sad, that’s all I can say.”

Clinton brushed aside questions about whether, as Bush said, he had shown poor judgment by participating in and organizing anti-war protests overseas.

“I was against the policy of the government, not against my country and I think the records are clear,” he said.

The Democratic nominee and his campaign aides were working hard Friday to promote a backlash against the President’s remarks. In the Clinton camp, there was hope that Bush’s comments would play into both the Democrat’s short-term and long-term strategies.

Short-term, Clinton on Sunday faces his first debate with Bush, at which the Democrat will try to present himself as a man who is moderate, measured and fully capable of serving as chief executive. So, rather than respond angrily to Bush’s gibes, Clinton is taking the high road, reacting to Bush less in anger than in a sorrow that appears to be calculated.

His underlings, however, have played bad cop to Clinton’s good cop. In the past two days, both his running mate, Tennessee Sen. Al Gore, and his communications director, George Stephanopoulos, have compared Bush to the late Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, the communist hunter of the 1950s. Clinton has refused to comment on those characterizations.

Over the long term, Clinton and his campaign were hopeful that reports of Bush’s alliance with Dornan would dovetail with their attempt to position Bush as further to the right than most Americans.

Earlier this week, the Clinton campaign began running ads emphasizing moderate positions held by the Democratic ticket--support for the death penalty, advocacy of welfare reform and a desire to rein in government spending.

Clinton did so specifically to take advantage of an opening his campaign saw among moderate voters turned off by the tone of the August Republican Convention.

In hopes that the most recent Republican attack would also repulse moderates, the Clinton campaign wasted little time casting Bush in the image of past, unpopular Republicans.

“They seem to be having the Republican Party follow in the hallowed tradition of Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Roy Cohn and H.R. Haldeman,” said Stephanopoulos, whose retorts to Bush on Friday were far more caustic than Clinton’s own.

“Is that the way President Bush and Jim Baker want to be remembered in this campaign? Is that the legacy they want to leave America, going out and trotting out ridiculous unsubstantiated McCarthyite charges?”

The late Cohn, an attorney, worked for McCarthy during the 1950s anti-communist hearings held by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Haldeman was Nixon’s chief of staff.

Stephanopoulos, like Clinton, on Friday accused Bush of “being held hostage by the far right wing.”

“The polls are dropping, he’s in trouble and they’re desperate,” he said. “President Bush is sad, he’s desperate, he’s pathetic and it’s a desperate attempt to try to turn the election around.”

Clinton spent the morning and afternoon locked behind the doors of a second-floor conference room in his Kansas City hotel, preparing for the Sunday night debate.

Aides said that he went over memos from staff members and advisers, and engaged in verbal jousts with Washington attorney Robert Barnett and Rep. Mike Synar (D-Okla.), who are playing Bush and Ross Perot respectively in mock debates conducted by the Democratic team.

Journalists were allowed in the room briefly to photograph Clinton reading one of his books and jotting on a legal pad.

When he ventured once from the briefing room, Clinton said that his voice, which has been hoarse for days, was “holding up.”

He also grinned when reporters related the advice offered by Bush’s last debate partner, 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael S. Dukakis. On a morning news show, Dukakis said that if Bush continues to batter Clinton with patriotism questions the Democrat should “hit Bush right between the eyes.”

“I expect to be aggressive and I appreciate the advice,” Clinton said.