Kemp Goes on Offensive With Blast at Clinton

Launching his sharpest attack yet on President Clinton’s character, GOP vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp on Saturday knocked the White House for an “arrogance of power . . . avoidance of responsibility . . . [and a] habit of half-truths.”

In the Republican response to Clinton’s weekly radio address, Kemp said “trust and integrity” had disappeared from the presidency, replaced by “words like Travelgate, Filegate, independent counsels and possible presidential pardons.”

Kemp’s shift from his standard economic stump speech to the character issue came amid growing anxiety in Republican circles over the state of Bob Dole’s presidential bid, which is mired in the polls.

At Dole headquarters in Washington, the Republican presidential candidate huddled with his senior advisors for about 50 minutes Saturday morning in a nuts-and-bolts strategy meeting about the shifting electoral map and how the former Senate majority leader’s campaign can capture the necessary 270 electoral votes on Nov. 5.

John Buckley, Dole’s communications director, declined to answer which states Dole will focus on--and which he will ignore--in the three weeks before the election.

“California is very much in play,” Buckley said. “There’s no question that all of the work that the president’s people have put in there, all of the money that they’ve spent, all of the time that he has spent raising money from the Hollywood crowd have not put California out of play.”

Gov. Pete Wilson has complained that Dole has not spent enough money advertising in the Golden State, with its important 54 electoral votes. While the campaign’s current California advertising buy ends Tuesday, the day before the final presidential debate in San Diego, Buckley would not say when and if Dole will advertise there next.

“We’re not going to talk about any advertising decisions beyond Tuesday, because if we did that, it would be the functional equivalent of saying we’re going to invade right there with this many troops,” Buckley said.

The strategy group did not discuss the upcoming debate, campaign officials said. Dole will head for San Diego on Monday to prepare for the encounter with Clinton.

*

In a staff memo dated Friday, Dole campaign manager Scott Reed outlined the issues that the campaign considers to be fair game as the campaign enters its final weeks.

Included on the table, the memo said, are the firings of the White House travel office staff, the investigations and resignations of Clinton staffers, and the possibility of pardons for those convicted in cases that arose from the Whitewater-related investigations.

“These are not personal attacks or decades-old allegations of impropriety,” Reed said in the memo. “They are current issues that go to the very core of Bill Clinton’s presidential character.”

And in an interview on ABC-TV’s “Nightline” Friday night, Dole said he had decided where to set his personal boundaries on attacking the president from the campaign trail and that he is guarding against an image of being “mean old Bob.”

*

Dole said he will not delve into personal attacks against the president or First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and that he is reluctant to wade into the complicated Whitewater incident.

“I’ve pretty much made up my mind how far I’ll go,” he said. “To get into gossip--I’m not running for gossip columnist. I’m running for president.”

As Dole talked strategy, Kemp took over the GOP radio address and used it to accuse the president of breaking promises and exacerbating the cynicism many Americans have about government.

“I know that some people say that everyone in Washington is like this and that all politicians are the same. Well Bob Dole isn’t,” Kemp said. “He has spent a career and his life disproving that cynical observation.”

But even as Kemp ratcheted up his rhetoric, he, like Dole, drew a line and refused to knock the president for what he deemed personal matters.

“We don’t believe in disparaging anyone’s personal character,” Kemp said. “Bob Dole and I have never done it, and we will not start now. But we have a duty to talk about this administration’s posturing and their public disregard for the very standards they set for themselves.”

Republican operatives have complained that Kemp has not taken a tough enough posture regarding Clinton on the issue of character. And Buckley praised Kemp’s radio address with its uncharacteristic attack of the president.

“I think [he] got a lot of attention for it,” Buckley said. “People were pleasantly surprised to see just how firm he was in what he said. I think we’re going to see a lot more discussion like that.”

Asked Saturday about the Dole strategy session, Clinton-Gore campaign spokesman Joe Lockhart contended that the Republicans were trying to manipulate the press to focus harder on the character question.

“I think all of this public rumination about whether or not to go negative is for your benefit. . . . You’re doing a good job of publicizing it,” Lockhart said as he traveled with Clinton in Colorado. “They want to keep the story alive for a couple more days. They have no message.”

Despite his revved-up radio talk, Kemp appeared uncomfortable repeating the partisan thunder later. At a midday rally in Medford, Ore., before two logging trucks loaded with tree trunks, Kemp told several hundred supporters that the ethical standards in the White House had fallen precipitously.

But when the crowd began to boo at the mention of Clinton’s name, Kemp immediately hushed them. “This is not a football game. We’re not doing anything personal.”

An elderly man in a black cowboy hat yelled from the back: “Why not?”

Kemp advisors said the candidate had been angered by Vice President Al Gore’s repeated portrayal of the Dole tax-cut plan as a “risky tax scheme” during Wednesday’s vice presidential debate. Gore’s tough talk, they said, prompted Kemp to strike back.

During a Saturday morning TV interview, Kemp defended his campaign approach.

“I’m not an attack dog,” he said. “Bob Dole doesn’t want me to be one. I’ve never been one, and I’m not today. I’m simply laying out to the American people the record of Bob Dole versus the record of Bill Clinton.”

Later, heading into Northern California, Kemp brought up two themes that Wilson has been urging the GOP campaign to stress in the state: immigration and affirmative action.

Kemp said at an airport rally in Stockton that the federal government ought to help states such as California pay for the costs that illegal immigrants impose on the state. He made a point of differentiating between those who enter the country according to the rules and those who do not.

“Whether your name is Spano or Khachigian or Fong or Gonzales or whatever that name may be, immigrants come to America for opportunity,” he said. “We must close the back door of illegal immigration so we can keep open the front door of lawful immigration. That’s the golden door.”

On affirmative action, Kemp said it is time for the federal government to help all people, regardless of color, have equal access to the capital needed to launch businesses. That, he said, would do far more for equal opportunity than current affirmative action programs.

Still, some waited in vain for Kemp to go after the man in the White House. A man in the front waved a sign: “Attack Like Pitbulls!” He still had it in the air when Kemp jumped off the stage and headed for his plane.

La Ganga reported from Washington. Times staff writer Jonathan Peterson in Morrison, Colo., contributed to this story.