Character Issue Continues to Drive Wedge Between President and Perot : Politics: Texas billionaire says he will do nothing to undermine Clinton. But he hints that he finds his former rival to be morally flawed.

Ross Perot has, for the moment, eased up on his criticism of President Clinton.

Sure, he still thinks Clinton is middle-management material at best, but Perot allows as how the President is a quick study and could be promotable with a little seasoning. Yes, Clinton lacks basic leadership abilities, but he’s getting a generous dose of experience every day.

Still, Clinton is the President and Perot will do nothing to undermine him, the Dallas billionaire said in a recent interview.

“He is our President. He will be our President and the more successful he is, the better off the country is, the better off the people are,” Perot said. “I’ve said it again and again, I’d like to see him on Mt. Rushmore at the end of the first four years.”

Yet beneath these public protestations of support, there appears to be a deep-seated and probably immutable antipathy for the President. No matter what Clinton does on the federal deficit, regardless of his success in reforming government, no matter how masterfully he conducts foreign policy, it is likely that Perot will never fully respect the man.

The issue is character. Although Perot steadfastly refuses to discuss Clinton’s personal behavior, it is clear from veiled comments and from interviews with those close to Perot that he finds the President to be morally flawed.

In the interview conducted in his North Dallas office--a shrine to God, family and country--Perot shared his views about Clinton’s intelligence, energy, capacity for leadership and political potential.

But when asked to comment on Clinton’s moral character, he went silent.

“I don’t want to talk about those issues. I haven’t. There’s nothing I can say about it,” he snapped.

Perot’s assessment of Clinton’s moral character could be a powerful weapon if he chooses to challenge the President in 1996, as many expect he will.

Perot has a following among the millions of conservative voters who have withheld their support from Clinton and without whom election to national office is virtually impossible.

By siphoning these voters away from former President George Bush in 1992, Perot ensured Clinton’s victory.

Perot is a moral absolutist, even a Puritan, when it comes to personal behavior. He does not tolerate dishonesty or adultery among his subordinates.

Next in his personal pantheon are reverence for the military and selfless public service. His two top lieutenants last year--running mate Adm. James B. Stockdale and Orson Swindle, the national director of United We Stand, America, Inc.--were Vietnam War POWs.

During the presidential campaign, Clinton was plagued by rumors of marital infidelity and revelations of his efforts to avoid military service during the Vietnam War.

“Bush and Clinton got power by accommodating their critics. Perot confronts his critics,” said Richard W. Fisher, a former policy adviser to Perot and an unsuccessful Senate candidate this year.

“The nation is at a point where people want strong leadership, and Clinton does not seem to be providing it,” Fisher said.

Perot said he receives calls every day from members of the military--”from privates to generals”--who say they are troubled by Clinton’s draft record and his efforts to lift the ban on gay men and lesbians serving in uniform.

Perot said he tells all the callers: “Show absolute respect for the office of the commander in chief. And there must be absolutely no breakdown there, ever.”

He said Clinton, through word and deed, will have to earn the trust and respect of members of the military. It will be an uphill struggle, he contended.

“It’s very important to our country, and I hope that he will,” Perot said.

Perot attended the U.S. Naval Academy and was chairman of its honors committee, which enforces the school’s famous code of conduct demanding that midshipmen never lie, cheat or steal--or tolerate those who do.

Perot said his specific criticisms of Clinton center on his seeming inability to focus on one or two important initiatives, the inexperience of his staff and an apparent lack of organization in the executive branch.

Perot said that while he believes that those remain valid criticisms, he has seen some improvement since former GOP aide David Gergen joined the White House as counselor earlier this month.

Perot said he and Gergen met by happenstance in Bermuda shortly before Gergen took office, and Perot seems to have tempered his public criticism of the President since.

The Texan insisted that Gergen had extracted no vow of silence or promise of forbearance. “That never came up,” he said.

But Perot’s son-in-law, Clay Mulford, who serves as legal counsel to Perot’s political organization and is a close personal adviser, said he and Gergen had discussed the President’s progress and Perot’s role in the coming months.

“We told Gergen that we’d be supportive of Bill Clinton if he followed the agenda he was elected on”--particularly deficit reduction and political reform--Mulford said.

He added that Perot was aware it was not in his interest to frame the debate as a personal conflict between the President and Perot.

“The way to get the support of the center is not to drive up somebody else’s negatives,” Mulford said.

This realization seems to have hit home at the White House as well. After dispatching political adviser Paul Begala to meet with the Dallas maverick in May, the White House has been silent on Perot.

Begala said Perot is driven by an intense need for attention. If he attends a wedding, Begala said, Perot wants to be the bride. If he goes to a funeral, he wants to be the corpse.

Perot said: “See, they don’t understand me. At a funeral, I want to be the undertaker or the florist. And if there’s a wedding, I don’t want to be the bride--I’m an unlikely candidate as a bride to start with--I would want to be either the person selling the dress to the bride, or the florist or the caterer. Or if all those failed, I’d want to be the father of the groom because he doesn’t have to do anything.”