Dole Says He Opposes Foster Confirmation

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole said Saturday he opposes the confirmation of President Clinton’s choice for surgeon general and that he believes that the nomination will never reach the Senate floor.

Dole, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, has been critical of the Administration’s choice of Dr. Henry W. Foster Jr. from the start, but he had never before publicly indicated how he would vote on the matter.

His statements, made during a TV interview program to be aired today, were yet another blow to the nomination, which has been on shaky ground ever since the controversial obstetrician and gynecologist was selected by the President 11 weeks ago. Foster has been vehemently opposed by Christian organizations, largely because of his position favoring abortion rights.

Speaking during a taping of NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press” in his hometown of Russell, Kan., Dole said he doubts the nomination will ever clear the GOP-controlled Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee. Even if it did, he said, he might not bring the matter to a vote. As majority leader, Dole controls the Senate’s schedule.

In response, John Podesta, the White House aide who is managing the nomination, flatly denied that Dole’s decision doomed Foster’s confirmation. He said Clinton is convinced that “when people have a chance to see Dr. Foster, it will be very hard to deny him a vote, irrespective of the strong lobby against him by anti-abortion groups.”

Podesta said the Administration firmly believes that Foster “deserves a chance to be heard, and he deserves a vote on the (Senate) floor.

“We think that once he has the opportunity to testify before the committee and tell the story of his life and accomplishments, he will have the votes to be confirmed,” he added.

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Dole’s comments appeared to be another in a series of attempts to bolster his drive for the White House by dissuading GOP conservatives from backing his chief rival for the party’s nomination, Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas. Gramm had previously announced his opposition to Foster, threatening a filibuster that would prevent the nomination from coming to a vote in the Senate.

The Kansas senator has recently made other announcements of policy positions, all likely to appeal to Republican conservatives. He has pledged to repeal the highly controversial assault-weapon ban passed by the last Congress; to overhaul affirmative action regulations that he had previously supported, and to make it easier for property owners to make claims against the government as a result of the value of their property being diminished due to environmental regulations.

While the moves could help Dole stymie Gramm’s efforts to overtake him, they are not without risk. All of these issues are divisive, and Dole’s positions could mobilize groups that disagree with him. More fundamentally, adopting these positions could create the impression of political opportunism, a perception that could hurt him in the general election and rob the GOP of what some analysts believe would be a prime argument against Clinton, who has been criticized for shifting his ground and lacking firm convictions.

Podesta refused to comment when asked whether presidential politics was driving both Dole’s and Gramm’s stands on Foster.

Ever since the nomination ignited a firestorm of protest in February, the White House has been waging a quiet campaign aimed at gaining the crucial approval of congressional Republicans.

Even before Dole made his remarks, observers on both sides of the debate were conceding that the doctor faced an extraordinarily difficult struggle to win Senate approval. Three GOP senators on the labor committee remain publicly undecided--although the White House has been hoping it eventually could win the support of two of them. The panel has scheduled hearings on the Foster nomination for May 2.

Although White House officials have been optimistic that they could muster 51 votes to confirm Foster in a Senate vote, they acknowledge it would be almost impossible to raise the 60 votes that Senate rules require to end a filibuster.

The controversy over Foster’s nomination began almost as soon as he was named by Clinton on Feb. 2 to replace Joycelyn Elders, whom Clinton had fired on Dec. 9.

At first, questions arose about whether he had deliberately understated the number of abortions he performed while a physician years ago in Alabama. Although he initially numbered them at less than a dozen, he later said he had failed to carefully check his records and acknowledged a more accurate figure was three times that.

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Questions also were raised about hysterectomies he performed decades ago on mentally retarded patients who could not give their consent and whether he knew about a decades-long syphilis study that withheld treatment from black prisoners.

The Administration has contended all along that the criticism of Foster, who is African American, has been fueled by conservatives beholden to anti-abortion groups. The Administration intends for Foster, if he is confirmed, to concentrate on programs to curb teen-age pregnancy.