GOP Presidential Aspirants Play Bush Card With Conservatives

As next year’s presidential contest escalates into a brawl, loyalty is placing a distant second to ambition.

Texas Gov. George W. Bush already has been hit with a blizzard of sniping from his potential Republican competitors--hardly unusual given that he was the front-runner in early polls. But criticism also has been flung at someone who might seem an unlikely target: the governor’s father.

Six years after leaving office, former President Bush is still a popular political figure. More to the point, he helped vault into national prominence at least two of the folks who have hurled insults at him.

The criticism is being spurred by a desire to take down the Texas governor--who even before announcing his intentions has eclipsed candidates who have been campaigning for years. And it is meant to extend to his son the lasting enmity between the former president and some of his party’s most dependable conservative voters.

Alexander Not ‘Kinder, Gentler’

Candidates trying to take advantage of that breach include Lamar Alexander, the secretary of Education in the Bush administration, who in a recent blast at the governor’s “compassionate conservative” slogan also belittled the former president’s “kinder and gentler” motto.

GOP hopefuls Steve Forbes and Gary Bauer also tried to tar the son with his father’s brush, arguing that the elder Bush abandoned conservatives and that the younger’s resolve is suspect.

Even Bush’s vice president, Dan Quayle, delivered what could have been construed as a shot at his onetime boss when he cautioned Republicans recently to countenance “no more timid, themeless, issueless, me-too campaigns.”

More than anything, the gibes underscore the lasting nature of a decades-old battle that puts the Hatfields and McCoys to shame--the blood feud between GOP conservatives and their more moderate cousins. For now, the governor’s chances of merging both camps are clouded by his father’s ambivalent legacy.

“The governor appears to be conservative, but he is his father’s son, so there is a background music of distrust,” said David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union.

“In the final analysis, under pressure, is George simply the son of George or is he more than that?” Keene asked. “If the conservatives conclude that he isn’t more than that, they will be prepared to finish him.”

Allies of both Bushes contend that the critics are churlish and shortsighted.

“I find it ironic . . . that the conservatives--many of them so-called Christian conservatives--choose to ignore Scripture, which says that the sins of the fathers shall not be visited upon the shoulders of the sons,” said Don Sipple, who ran Bush’s 1994 gubernatorial ad campaign. He added, with mock horror: “The Scriptures get trampled by political ambitions.”

For now, the tempest seems to be contained largely within the better-known Washington-based conservative groups, which already are battling moderates who blame them for the party’s slumping post-impeachment popularity.

At least in early presidential polling, his aides are happy to point out, Bush is popular among rank-and-file conservatives. “It was perplexing that fellow Republicans would choose to attack a very popular conservative governor of a very important conservative state,” chided Karen Hughes, the governor’s spokeswoman. Through a spokesman, the former president declined to comment.

Political analysts say, however, that distrust of the younger Bush by aggressive activists still could pose problems in the interregnum before the governor--if he runs--becomes better known and shifts the focus to his own record.

“For an extended period, he’s going to be quite vulnerable to” attacks, said Stu Rothenberg, publisher of a Washington-based political newsletter. “He is regarded as having such a huge lead that if he stumbles, it registers as a huge story.” Conservatives’ “relative strength is disproportionate in Iowa and New Hampshire, so it’s cause for concern.”

Which makes things nicely symmetrical, if nothing else, for the elder Bush’s presidential career was dogged by the Republican culture clash.

The breach opened in 1980 when Bush challenged conservative icon Ronald Reagan for the presidency--and taunted Reagan’s tax plan as “voodoo economics.” It widened with his shifting positions on abortion. And it cleaved almost completely when the then-president repudiated his “read my lips” pledge to not raise taxes.

For good measure, the sides also got dyspeptic over real or imagined verbal slights, like Bush’s 1988 vow to be “kinder and gentler.” Than us, conservatives steamed? When the younger Bush described himself as a “compassionate conservative,” their teeth gritted anew.

“It came off as: ‘Most conservatives are not compassionate and he is,’ ” said Greg Mueller, a Republican consultant for Patrick J. Buchanan’s rebel campaigns against the senior Bush.

In addition to the policy splits, the dispute between the elder Bush and some conservatives was fueled by entrenched class schisms.

Bush, the son of a Connecticut senator, was the embodiment of upper-crust Republicanism--in all of its Northeastern establishment, noblesse oblige coloration. Over the years, that tribe has been largely overrun by suburban and religious conservatives who are skeptical of their cultural opposites.

“The people today who control the party are people who were looked at in disdain by the people who considered themselves their social better,” Keene said. “They don’t like the bluebloods and the bluebloods don’t like them.”

The Texas governor, however, has given nervous conservatives far less ammunition than did his father. He opposes abortion rights, although he has yet to go out on a limb to enforce his views in Texas. He was saved from what conservatives contend was a tax hike plan--the governor said it was tax reform--by the refusal of the state Legislature to go along.

Stylistically, his Texas upbringing wears better on cultural conservatives than his father’s New England pedigree. While he has managed to reach out to all Texans without shirking the embrace of conservatives there, his inclusive demeanor does set off alarms among some nationally.

“When conservatives hear ‘big tent,’ they think we’re caving on our issues,” Mueller explained.

There is, of course, a benefit to being a Bush. His parents remain popular draws among Republicans--the former president alone raised $10 million for GOP candidates in the last election cycle. Some predict that criticism of the family will inevitably backfire.

“In the Republican Party, President Bush’s numbers eclipse anyone’s,” said Ron Kaufman, who coordinates his political activities. “I don’t think it’s a wise decision for anybody to think that attacking President Bush is going to get them anything, except people mad at them.”

David Carney, a longtime New Hampshire political hand, said the gibes against the former president “will get you through the summer, but are designed for failure.”

“Gov. Bush is different from his father,” said Carney, a Republican unaligned in the 2000 contest.

Some Try to Play It Both Ways

Already, some candidates are trying to play it both ways. After Republican candidate Alexander accused the elder Bush of “violating the bedrock conservative principle of lower taxes and smaller government,” he said in an interview that he respects the former president “enormously.”

“My focus was on the compassionate conservative label,” he said. Asked whether he could have criticized that without going after the elder Bush, Alexander added: “I could have, and you won’t hear that again. I’m not running against President Bush.”

The matter has erupted now because candidates who lack momentum are trying to cobble together support from one niche group at a time. For them, fanning conservative fears gets them attention, the coin of their realm.

“The bigger the target, the bigger the headline,” said GOP consultant Dan Schnur. “Short of going against Ronald Reagan, which no sane Republican would do, President Bush and Gov. Bush are the biggest targets around.

“If they thought that going after Abraham Lincoln would get them some time on CNN,” he added, “they’d be holding news conferences at Gettysburg.”