Unity Pledge Marks Lugar’s Bid for GOP Nomination : Campaign: In his speech, the Indiana senator emphasizes his own qualifications and challenges those of President Clinton.

Sen. Richard G. Lugar joined the crowded Republican presidential race Wednesday with a speech that urged national unity but forcefully challenged President Clinton’s character and credentials.

In a cerebral address that dwelt heavily on his personal qualifications, Lugar reiterated his recently announced proposal to replace the federal taxes on income, capital gains, gifts and estates with a new national sales tax. But the speech, delivered to a lunchtime crowd in the city where he served for eight years as mayor, offered few other specifics about his priorities in domestic or foreign affairs.

Instead, the four-term senator began his uphill bid for the GOP nomination by subtly contrasting his personal qualities and political instincts not only to those of his seven announced Republican competitors, but also to that of the incumbent whose job all of them are seeking.

While several of his Republican rivals have voiced polarizing themes on “wedge” issues such as welfare, affirmative action and immigration, Lugar described himself as “inclusive,” and repeatedly pledged to “unite” the nation.

“The essence of presidential leadership is to make important changes in our country without dividing our country,” Lugar declared.

Lugar’s entry nearly closes the gate on the Republican field. Seven other contenders have already joined the race, including Sens. Bob Dole of Kansas, Phil Gramm of Texas and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. Former Gov. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, conservative commentator Patrick J. Buchanan, Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) and talk show host Alan Keyes are also in the running; Gov. Pete Wilson is expected to join them next month.

Lugar’s announcement in a downtown plaza here drew a buoyant crowd that tossed Frisbees and beach balls and listened to a gritty blues band rework rhythm-and-blues favorites such as “Respect” and “Domino” into impromptu Lugar anthems.

The mood, however, sobered somewhat once Lugar arrived--partly because he opened his speech with a moment of silence for victims of the federal office building bombing in Oklahoma City, but also because he delivered most of his remarks in a tone as flat as the surrounding farmland.

Though he mentioned President Clinton by name only once, Lugar repeatedly suggested that he is better suited for the job, especially in conducting foreign policy. Lugar served in the Navy from 1957 through 1960 and chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the mid-1980s. At one point, the Indiana Republican pointedly juxtaposed his Navy experience--all of which was during peacetime--against Clinton’s lack of military service.

“In the Lugar administration,” he said, “Americans will rest easier in the knowledge that the President who is standing watch over the country’s safety and security is someone who actually knows what it means to stand a watch.”

On this opening day of his campaign, at least, Lugar placed much more emphasis on asserting his personal qualifications for the job than on explaining what he might do if he won it. He criticized the Federal Reserve Board for threatening economic growth by raising short-term interest rates, called for reductions in agricultural price supports and flagged his opposition to abortion by declaring: “I believe in the sanctity of life.”

On foreign policy, he said that the United States must move to “keep the means of nuclear destruction out of the hands of terrorists the world over.” But mostly he spoke in broad terms of taking “advantage . . . of the unique window of opportunity presented” by the Cold War’s end.

Like almost all of his competitors, Lugar lamented the “erosion” of “moral and family values.” But in a revealing sign of his conciliatory instincts, he pledged to “work tirelessly with” community and religious leaders and the entertainment industry to encourage moral renewal. In his announcement tour last week, by contrast, Dole lashed the entertainment industry in language seen as an effort to appeal to religious conservatives.

A native of Indianapolis and a Rhodes scholar, Lugar, 63, began his political career on the city school board and first achieved national recognition in the early 1970s as “Richard Nixon’s favorite mayor.” After his two terms as Indianapolis mayor, he was elected to the Senate in 1976 and has been reelected three times since.

Solid and serious, Lugar has earned respect in Washington as a thoughtful analyst on agricultural and foreign policy issues. But he never has been at the cutting edge of debate on the core domestic issues now driving Republican politics, and many party analysts are uncertain exactly where he will find a niche in the crowded presidential campaign.

While candidates such as Dole, Gramm and Alexander have spent years preparing their presidential bids, Lugar has not established a national network of supporters or donors. One sign of his limited reach is that he will spend the next several days in Indiana raising money from the longtime supporters most enthusiastic about his candidacy. Most of the other candidates followed their announcements with national tours.

To give his campaign energy, Lugar has embraced the dramatic plan to replace the federal individual and corporate income taxes with a 17% national sales tax. Such a sales tax, he argued, would favor savings over consumption and lay a foundation for stronger long-term economic growth.

“With savings and investment no longer taxed, Americans will enjoy an economic boom,” he said. “There will be increased productivity, higher wages and new investment from around the world attracted by our policy of no income taxes.”

But Lugar has been uncharacteristically at sea in providing details on how his scheme would work. He has acknowledged that a 17% sales tax could disproportionately burden the poor, who spend a larger percentage of their income on necessities. But he has not spelled out how he would rectify the problem.

Notwithstanding such potential problems, Lugar expects the sales tax idea to excite voters fed up with the complexity and burdens of the income tax. The first returns offer him some cause for optimism: His promise to eliminate the income tax and shut down the Internal Revenue Service drew the loudest applause from those present.

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Profile: Richard G. Lugar

Born: April 4, 1932.

Education: Bachelor’s degree from Denison University in 1954. Rhodes scholar at Oxford University, where he earned master’s degree in 1956.

Career highlights: Served three years in Navy until 1960, including stint as intelligence officer under Adm. Arleigh Burke in the Pentagon. Elected to Indianapolis School Board in 1964. Elected Indianapolis mayor in 1968, served until 1975. President of National League of Cities from 1970 to 1971. Elected to Senate in 1976; chairman of Foreign Relations Committee from 1985 to 1986, until Democrats recaptured control. Now chairman of Agriculture Committee. Author of “Letters to the Next President,” published in 1988.

Personal: Married to Charlene Lugar, who serves on national board of directors of the March of Dimes. Four grown sons, Mark, Robert, John and David; seven grandchildren.

Source: Associated Press