ELECTIONS ’92 : Perot Says Votes for Bush Are Wasted, ‘He’s History’ : Campaign: Independent again defends charges that Republicans plotted dirty tricks campaign against him.

Independent presidential candidate Ross Perot, expressing particular disdain for President Bush and the Republican Party, said Thursday night that people who support the incumbent are wasting their vote because Bush cannot win reelection.

Appearing on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” Perot also defended his controversial charges that the Republicans last summer were plotting a dirty tricks campaign to wiretap his telephones and embarrass his daughter Carolyn.

“Is it unthinkable that these people in the Republican Party might do it?” he asked. “This is the same party that gave us Watergate. This is the same party that gave us Iran-Contra. This is the party that’s up to its ears in Iraqgate now. This is the same group that’s always hands off--’Gee, we didn’t do it.’ So there’s a pattern here.”

Although Perot leveled equal criticism at Bush and Democratic challenger Bill Clinton on some issues and refused to say which of the two he would prefer, he clearly reserved his harshest comments for Bush and the GOP.

“He’s history,” Perot declared, referring to the President. “The people who are voting for him are wasting their votes . . . . I’m saying, don’t throw your vote away.”

Perot also took a jab at Bush for failing to recognize the seriousness of the recession earlier this year. Bush contends that the economy is not as bad as many people think, and he told ABC’s “Prime Time Live” Thursday that “the economy is not in recession.”

“Folks who didn’t finish high school, they’ve already figured out what the problem is,” Perot said. “Believe me, everybody out there except the White House knows the recession is here. If you lived in that insulated bubble they’ve created for the President, you wouldn’t know it either.”

Singer-actress Cher called in to tell Perot that she had cast an absentee ballot for him.

“I’d just like to say I feel really proud today I voted for Ross Perot,” she said. Last July, when Perot appeared on the show a day after pulling out of the race, Cher called to urge him to return.

Earlier in the day, the Perot campaign issued a statement charging that the news media are unfairly portraying the election as a contest strictly between Bush and Clinton.

Perot’s press secretary, Sharon Holman, also blamed Bush, Clinton and news reporters for causing his independent campaign to become mired in a controversy over Perot’s allegations about dirty tricks.

Bush dismissed the charges as “crazy” and White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater called Perot “paranoid.”

“In the past week,” Holman said, “we have been forced to respond to planted stories that have been apparently planted by the opposition and have deflected us away from what we think are the major issues of this campaign and the issues that are important to the American people.”

In an effort to redirect the media focus, Perot will embark Saturday on a two-day, three-state campaign swing through Florida, Kansas and California. On Sunday, he will appear at rallies at the Long Beach Arena, beginning at 2 p.m., and the Santa Clara Convention Center near San Jose.

Implicitly, Holman’s statement was an acknowledgment that Perot realized that he had blundered last Sunday when he told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that he withdrew from the race last July because he suspected that the Republicans were plotting a smear campaign.

Holman did not say who she thought had planted the story. But she noted that “other campaigns have called on the media to attack Ross Perot, his credibility and character.”

Holman cited a number of instances in recent days in which the news media had failed to mention Perot in discussing the election.

In a taped interview with David Frost to be broadcast on PBS tonight, Perot was asked to respond to charges of paranoia.

“I am not paranoid,” Perot insisted. “. . . Part of the political process in our country, particularly in one party, is when you have a candidate who is attractive to the people, and who can communicate with people, is to try to redefine his character. You’ll never find the word ‘paranoid’ used once in all of the thousands, hundreds of thousands of words written about me before this started.”