Clinton to Give State of Union Address; Dole to Respond

President Clinton’s State of the Union speech, to be delivered to Congress tonight, began to look like part of the first debate of the 1996 presidential campaign Monday as Sen. Bob Dole announced he would present the GOP response.

Dole is the leading Republican contender to face Clinton in November. Officials of his campaign said that he was exercising his prerogative as Senate majority leader to deliver the response a few minutes after Clinton’s speech, which begins at 6 p.m. PST. And Clinton insisted that his remarks would be essentially nonpartisan.

Analysts doubted that. “Don’t wait until October; you can get a sneak preview of the debates now,” said Ross K. Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University.

Several experts said they could not recall a president’s message being followed by the speech of a rival who would likely face him in the general election.

Republican leaders had hoped to give their address on Wednesday in prime time. But CBS, ABC and NBC declined their request for prime time, leaving the GOP to follow Clinton in a slot that may be late in the East.

Even so, Dole’s appearance will give him valuable access to a huge audience--an opportunity that his GOP rivals would clearly relish. One congressional aide said Dole’s decision had prompted some grumbling from rivals.

Clarkson Hine, the Kansas senator’s legislative press secretary, said he had heard of no grumbling, and then added with a smile: “They’ll deal with it.”

Terry Holt, campaign spokesman for Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), said Dole was clearly within his rights to take the address himself. But he praised House Speaker Newt Gingrich for last year choosing freshman Sen. Fred D. Thompson of Tennessee, a noncandidate.

By tradition, the Senate majority leader and speaker of the House have alternated in choosing who delivers the response.

White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said he did not expect Dole to turn to partisan attacks, particularly since Dole has been working with Clinton on the budget “without making a lot of partisan hay.” Dole did not reciprocate that expectation.

Clinton “will probably bring out his campaign agenda for ’96 . . . I assume he’ll put the best spin on it he can,” Dole said in an interview with the Associated Press.

Sheila P. Burke, Dole’s chief of staff, said Dole’s remarks will last only about eight minutes. “He will talk about the differences in approach and in philosophy.”

Dole intends to talk about the Republican vision--”a different vision” of the role of government in Americans’ lives, she said.

Some GOP aides said Dole’s selection for delivering the speech gives Clinton another reason to speak at length, as he did last year with an 81-minute record-breaker. If he speaks at length this year, he will push Dole’s appearance past the bedtime of many viewers.

The White House said Clinton’s speech will:

* Endorse the bipartisan McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill and call for swift congressional action on it. The bill calls for voluntary campaign spending limits and reward complying candidates with discounted broadcast time.

* Renew his call for an anti-terrorism measure proposed after the Oklahoma City bombing.

* Again call for an increase in the minimum wage.

* Propose ways to rid housing projects of drugs and gangs.