Bush Steps Up the Attack on Clinton, Administration

Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, lashed out at President Clinton Friday, calling him the “campaign manager” for Vice President Al Gore and questioning his integrity.

At a Democratic fund-raiser in Manhattan on Thursday, Clinton derided Bush for a primary season television ad that questioned rival John McCain’s dedication to breast cancer research. Clinton called the ad “completely unfair.”

The president--who does not often talk about Bush--mentioned him by name five times in the speech and took the Texan to task for opposing hate crime legislation in his own state, where James Byrd Jr., a black man, was dragged to death from the back of a pickup truck.

“All he had to do was to lift his hand and they would have had a hate crimes bill,” Clinton said of Bush. “And it did not pass because [Republicans] did not want it to pass. Because they do not believe that gays and lesbians should be protected by hate crimes legislation.”

Bush was asked about the comments at a news conference here Friday morning. He said that he had not heard the specifics of the remarks but noted that “this is about the fifth or sixth time that the president of the United States . . . has taken time out of his busy schedule to serve as campaign manager for Al Gore.”

Bush said that he was “honored” that Clinton bothered to take his campaign so seriously and that the negative comments--which included criticisms of Bush’s tax plan and stand against abortion rights--are “typical of the kind of campaign we can expect from this administration.”

Bush promised to defend himself, his integrity and his record and said that “Americans are going to reject” a campaign in which the Democrats “spend a lot of time trying to tear me down.”

Reporters also asked Bush about a judge’s decision in the Kathleen Willey case that cast a negative light on the integrity of the Clinton administration.

“Bill Clinton promised the most ethical administration in history,” Bush responded. “He’s fallen about 41 presidents short. America wants better. We’re tired of the constant reminder that the bar has been lowered.”

On Thursday a federal judge ruled that Clinton and his aides intentionally violated the rights of Willey, a former White House volunteer, by releasing friendly letters she had written to the president. Clinton said the letters showed that her allegations that he made a sexual advance toward her “were untrue.”

Also Friday, Gore accepted an invitation to a foreign policy debate in April proposed by CNN and the Council on Foreign Relations. But a Bush spokesman said it was too early to hold such a debate.

Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said, “There’ll be plenty of time for debates when the voters are paying attention to the election. There will be debates.”

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Associated Press contributed to this story.