Bush Vows to Set Civil Tone in D.C., Reach Out to Foes

Continuing his effort to claim the political center, Republican George W. Bush pledged Wednesday night to “change the tone of Washington” and promised to reach across party lines toward the “New Democrat” movement that helped to launch Bill Clinton and Al Gore.

Bush blamed both parties for what he called “eight years of excessive partisanship and finger-pointing.”

“The Clinton-Gore administration has been the most relentlessly partisan administration in our nation’s history,” Texas Gov. Bush charged in a quietly received speech at a lavish Republican fund-raising dinner here. “But sometimes some in our own party have responded in kind. Americans have seen a cycle of bitterness: an arms race of anger. The legacy is cynicism, a generic distrust.”

Bush said he would break that cycle by setting “a different tone” that restores “civility and respect to our national politics.” He also promised to welcome ideas from “conservatives and moderates and New Democrats.”

That latter reference was especially striking because it refers specifically to the centrist New Democrat movement that has been a critical source of ideas for both President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, Bush’s presumed opponent in the presidential election. In a measure of his efforts to reposition his party, Bush has recently moved closer than Gore to the positions of the Democratic Leadership Council--the principal New Democratic organization--on a series of issues led by entitlement reform and health care.

Aides to Gore dismissed Bush’s call for a more civil political tone as hypocritical, noting that the presumptive Republican nominee has repeatedly attacked the vice president’s honesty and integrity during the campaign. And they noted that Bush has rejected Gore’s call for regular debates and joint town meetings. “Bush could take us up on that,” said Doug Hattaway, a Gore spokesman. “That would really elevate the debate.”

For his part, Bush in his speech accused Gore of running an excessively negative campaign. “It’s time to clean up the toxic environment in Washington. [But] make no mistake, when I am attacked in this campaign, I will respond.”

Bush’s speech continued an intriguing weeklong tug of war with Gore that highlights the way both candidates are likely to compete for the center through the general election.

Gore this week began a series of speeches (he delivered one on the economy Tuesday and another is due on education Friday) meant to sharpen his policy differences with Bush--and in effect to convince centrist swing voters that Bush is more conventionally conservative than he appears on issues from taxes to gun control to education.

Bush, meanwhile, has spent each day this week trying to further anchor himself in the center. His appearances are focusing on traditionally Democratic priorities such as economic opportunity for the poor (which he discussed Tuesday in Ohio) and education (which he highlighted in an appearance before a Republican women’s group here Wednesday afternoon). And his overriding message has been that he will reach across party lines to break the gridlock in Washington.

“As president, I will work with the Republican leadership and reach out to Democrats, as I have in Texas,” he said Wednesday. “I will treat the other party with respect, and when we make progress I will share the credit.”

To further underscore his message of bipartisanship, Bush took the unusual step of meeting privately earlier in the day with a Democratic senator: Nebraska’s Bob Kerrey, who is retiring this year. Kerrey and Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who also attended the hourlong meeting, discussed with Bush their legislation to establish individual investment accounts under Social Security. Bush has endorsed that idea in general terms, though he has not released a specific privatization plan.

Speaking with reporters before the session, Bush said it signaled the approach he would pursue as president. “In order to reform Social Security and strengthen it, in order to make sure we have a Medicare program, to make sure Head Start is as viable as it could be, we need to work together as Republicans and Democrats . . . that’s how we get things done.”

Bush began his campaign last summer determined to reposition the Republican Party in the center but emphasized much more conservative themes in fighting off Sen. John McCain of Arizona during the primaries. Since effectively clinching the GOP nomination on March 7, Bush has reverted to his “compassionate conservative” themes, unveiling new spending proposals in areas such as health care and education.

Bush delivered his call for a reformed political climate before a somewhat incongruous audience: a huge hall of affluent donors, many of them lobbyists, who paid at least $1,500 a ticket to attend the Republican National Committee’s annual fund-raising gala, which was billed as a salute to the Texas governor. The RNC said it raised $21.3 million--which put the evening well past last year’s dinner (which honored Bush’s father, former President George Bush) as the party’s single largest fund-raiser ever.

And Bush didn’t stick to the high road entirely. He offered his partisan audience barbed one-liners aimed at President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. Still, his overall message struck a far more bipartisan note than is typical at party fund-raisers.

Responding to the dinner, Gore seized on the key roles played by tobacco companies, health maintenance organizations and the National Rifle Assn.’s top official in raising the money. “Talking to this group about reforming the campaign is like talking about tolerance at Bob Jones University,” said Hattaway.

Before the speech, Bush met Wednesday morning with Russian Foreign Minister Igor S. Ivanov. Afterward, Bush told reporters the two had “a frank discussion of our dreams and aspirations for our respective countries.”

Karen Hughes, the Bush campaign communications director, sat in on the meeting and said later that, while the discussion was “cordial,” the Texas governor had raised two points of conflict with Ivanov.

Hughes said that Bush criticized the Russian military operations in Chechnya, telling Ivanov: “It is troubling for me as a potential president to see the use of force on innocent civilians.”

In the meeting, Bush also reiterated his commitment to renegotiating the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty with Russia to allow the U.S. to deploy a high-tech missile defense system.