Dole Attacks Clinton on Ethics and Immigration

Prodded by restive California Republicans, Bob Dole broke his long silence on affirmative action and immigration Tuesday and squarely attacked President Clinton for a litany of alleged ethical misdeeds.

In a luncheon speech that saw him throw off weeks of indecision, Dole issued a blistering salvo against his Democratic opponent, declaring that “four more years of Bill Clinton will mean four more years of discarded pledges and shaded truths.”

Dole also reaffirmed his strong commitment to Proposition 209--the ballot measure to end race- and gender-based affirmative action programs in government--the same day that Gov. Pete Wilson and a cadre of the state’s congressional Republicans held a news conference in Burbank to publicly push the candidate to be more vocal about potent electoral issues in crucial California.

“The law is a place where all citizens, of every background, must stand as equals,” Dole said in a tough speech intended to outline the case that his aides hope he will make in tonight’s televised presidential debate. “We must not discriminate by race or handicap or anything else. And for that reason we must not count by race. This is why I strongly support the California Civil Rights Initiative.”

But the centerpiece of Dole’s 30-minute speech--his only public appearance Tuesday as he prepared for the debate--was his attack on Clinton and what he perceives as a growing “integrity gap . . . between what the presidency itself has been and what it has lately and sadly become.”

It was probably Dole’s most focused moment in a campaign that in recent weeks has gyrated in front of the American public in the critical lead-up to election day. Dole’s advisors have pushed him to toughen his attacks, and the past several days have seen him hesitantly move in that direction.

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On Tuesday, as scores of Electronics Industries Assn. members nibbled on salad and campaign aides passed out lists of 32 Clinton administration officials who allegedly have been “investigated, fired or forced to resign,” Dole said Clinton has blackened the sacred office of the presidency.

“I don’t know of any administration that has been as self-righteous,” Dole told the polite group. “But few administrations have been more self-serving. No administration has shown more arrogance. But few have displayed more ethical failures.”

In Albuquerque, where he was preparing for tonight’s debate, Clinton was coy when asked about Dole’s comments. “We’ll have time to discuss that in the debate,” he said.

Dole’s laundry list of alleged Clinton misdeeds--a Democratic dirty dozen--started with a poke at administration officials who are in political or legal hot water, including Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, who is under investigation by an independent counsel for allegedly accepting illegal gifts from lobbyists.

And it ended with charges that “this administration has allowed a wealthy Indonesian family to buy presidential access and play a role in foreign policy, in exchange for contributions to the Democratic National Committee.”

In between, Dole raised the specter of the White House travel office firings, Filegate and Whitewater, again charging that the president has dangled “the prospect of a pardon for a convicted felon who may be able to implicate him. . . . [Clinton] should clearly promise there will be no pardons in legal cases that personally concern him.”

Two counties away, GOP supporters Tuesday gently but clearly urged Dole to step up the intensity of his criticism of the White House, particularly focusing on some hot-button issues that have proved successful for California Republicans in the past.

Wilson led half a dozen Republican members of Congress in launching a scathing attack against President Clinton’s record on illegal immigration. The event was held against the backdrop of a private, nonprofit hospital--St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Burbank--which is losing about $1 million a year to unfunded care, an unknown portion of which is given to illegal immigrants.

“President Clinton’s repeated refusals to help California have imposed this intolerable burden on St. Joseph’s Medical Center,” Wilson said. “It is no exaggeration to call this a crisis.

“Tomorrow, President Clinton comes to San Diego to defend his record,” Wilson said. “In this case, it is a record of failing to help California overcome illegal immigration.”

In San Diego, Dole took on White House policies on immigration and endorsed Proposition 209 before he launched his ethics attack against the president.

Echoing concerns raised in Burbank, Dole decried the fact that California and other border states have been forced to bear the financial burden of illegal immigration, which he described as “a crime and a drain on scarce public resources.”

Wilson deflected questions about whether he is unhappy with Dole’s campaign performance. Instead, he cited the candidate’s early support for California’s Proposition 187 in 1994, which sought to block public benefits for illegal immigrants.

Some of the members of Congress were not as delicate. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) said, “Dole is a gentleman. If there is any complaint we have, it’s that he is too much of a gentleman. You don’t win an election by simply being a gentleman.”

Clinton’s California director, Tom Umberg, dismissed the attacks as a desperate hope by Republicans to attract attention for their campaign.

“This president has done more to combat illegal immigration than any president in the history of the Republic,” Umberg said.

For Wilson, it is revisiting a strategy that he believes has proved successful for him in the past. He has been urging the Dole campaign for more than a year to increase its attention to illegal immigration and Proposition 209.

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Tuesday, Wilson politely insisted that Dole has taken the right positions on the issues. But, after meeting privately with the candidate this week to talk about his campaign strategy, Wilson was left uncertain about how the campaign plans to proceed.

“He knows full well where I stand,” Wilson said. “I am growing more optimistic. I think they have recognized that the stakes are enormous here in California and by changing the numbers here in California they can energize the national effort.”

But polls show that Dole trails badly nationally and that voters already think he has been far more negative in campaigning than Clinton. On Tuesday, Dole challenged voters not to support a man “they say, I don’t say it, they say he is unethical.”

“We cannot say that we want integrity in public life and then reward its absence,” Dole said. “A president who has betrayed your trust has not won your vote. In my view, it is that simple. To say otherwise is to send a message that public integrity is meaningless.”

La Ganga reported from San Diego and Lesher from Burbank.

* RELATED STORIES: A3, A4, A5, A22. The 90-minute debate between President Clinton and GOP nominee Bob Dole will be aired live by all major networks starting at 6 p.m. PDT.