Gore Takes Offensive Against Dole, Kemp

Returning GOP fire, Vice President Al Gore said Sunday that Republican rivals Bob Dole and Jack Kemp are displaying desperation with their increasing attacks on the Clinton administration over ethical issues.

Gore insisted that the latest Republican offensive will backfire because Americans are more interested in the candidates’ agendas for the future than in negative attacks.

Still, the vice president’s counteroffensive suggested that the Clinton-Gore ticket may be feeling the sting of the GOP’s apparent new focus on so-called character issues, led by Kemp during a radio address Saturday and a television talk-show appearance Sunday.

Both on national TV and at a campaign appearance to help dedicate a new park here, Gore lashed back, all but accusing Dole of manipulating a “politically motivated” Senate committee investigation of the Clinton White House.

Asked if he thought the Dole campaign was acting out of desperation, Gore replied: “Yes, I do.”

The long-distance, high-tech Gore-Kemp exchange marked the first time in the campaign that both men have fully taken on the role of attack dogs, a task traditionally undertaken by vice presidential candidates.

Until now, both Dole and Kemp have been loath to attack President Clinton on character issues. Similarly, Gore in 1992 was criticized by some Democrats for not defending Clinton more vigorously, especially during the vice presidential candidates’ debate.

But the gloves came off over the weekend. Delivering the Republicans’ weekly radio address on Saturday, Kemp cited “Travelgate,” “Filegate,” “independent counsels” and “possible presidential pardons,” adding:

“These problems add up to a pattern that is sad and troubling to all Americans--Democrat, Republican and independents--an arrogance of power, the avoidance of responsibility, the habit of half-truths.”

Kemp kept hammering away Sunday during an appearance on ABC-TV’s “This Week With David Brinkley.” Asked if he thought Clinton has ever lied to the public, Kemp said: “That’s for the American people to decide.”

And on “Fox News Sunday,” Scott Reed, Dole’s campaign manager, added: “The big issue we’re going to be communicating about is trust. Do the American people trust Bill Clinton? That’s not a sign of desperation at all.”

On NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press,” Gore responded sharply, saying that the GOP has made a “cottage industry” out of attacking Clinton, calling the Senate Whitewater Committee investigation led by Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.), a top Dole campaign official, “an effort to try to defeat Bill Clinton for reelection.”

Gore also criticized Michael Chertoff, the Whitewater panel’s Republican counsel, for serving as a warmup speaker at a Dole rally last week in New Jersey, where Chertoff asked the partisan audience: “How many members of this administration had to resign in disgrace?”

“This is a politically motivated investigation by Sen. Dole. . . . It’s really outrageous,” Gore said. “. . . this is really the rawest, most outrageous abuse of taxpayer money in order to gin up this five-year investigation for purposes of political campaign.”

Gore also said he found it “unfortunate” that Kemp would “take this kind of low-road attack” after saying during last week’s vice presidential debate that it was “beneath” Dole to go after Clinton on character issues.

But Gore conceded that the Clinton administration has not been without ethical lapses, saying:

“In every administration in history there have been problems that have cropped up. There’s been no exception to that.”

On other topics, Kemp deviated from the GOP campaign line during his appearance on the ABC program, pledging to submit Dole’s “pro-growth” economic agenda, with its 15% across-the-board cut in income tax rates, to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office for analysis.

Gore first issued that challenge last week during a rally at the University of Delaware, and he repeated it on “Meet the Press.”

Both Clinton and Gore have repeatedly charged that Dole’s economic proposals would “blow a hole” in the federal budget deficit.