Gloves Come Off Between Bush, McCain

The Republican presidential campaign erupted into a noisy verbal slugfest Monday as George W. Bush accused his chief rival of hypocrisy while he unveiled a new campaign style seemingly patterned after John McCain himself.

Bush, who was set back by McCain’s landslide victory in the New Hampshire primary Feb. 1, unveiled a tough new campaign theme and a new slogan on new blue banners, “A reformer with results.” He also trotted out a new posture on the stump, talking with the voters in long, McCain-like question-and-answer sessions, instead of talking at them with his customary campaign speech.

“I learned a lesson in New Hampshire: I got defined” by McCain, the Texas governor said after speaking at an American Legion post. “I’m not going to let that happen again.”

While Bush joked that his new look is the result of a “different diet, a little more fiber,” he didn’t stay funny long, promising that “I’m going to take it to him. I’m ready. I like a good scrap. . . . You haven’t seen the Barbara Bush in me yet.”

Bush accused the senator from Arizona of duplicity on his signature issue of campaign finance reform, charging that McCain takes large amounts of money from lobbyists at the same time he crusades for cleaning up the political donation system.

‘We Have to Fire Back,’ McCain Says

“I hear him say, ‘Let’s have campaign finance reform,’ ” Bush said, “and on the other hand he says, ‘Let’s pass the plate.’ ”

Campaigning in Michigan on Monday, McCain responded in kind: “I understand Gov. Bush is now a reformer. If so, it’s his first day on the job.”

McCain said he was not looking for a fight, but he declared: “We have to fire back. And we won’t just respond, we’ll respond doubly. And we’ll have a lot of fun doing it.”

Gibed McCain strategist Mike Murphy: “All it takes is one loss in a primary and the compassionate conservative becomes the attack conservative.”

The two camps ratcheted up a fast-growing battle over who violated what is becoming known as “The Handshake,” a pledge Bush and McCain made during a January debate not to engage in negative campaigning.

Bush began airing a critical ad Friday in South Carolina contending that his budget plan would dedicate $2 trillion to shoring up Social Security--money that, by law, must go to the retirement plan, McCain staffers say. The ad also boasts that McCain’s economic advisor supported the Bush plan--a contention McCain says is patently false.

Said McCain of the Bush ad: “One can only assume these kinds of charges, which fly in the face of the facts, are an act that may be viewed by some as desperate.”

For several days, McCain has somewhat cryptically said he would respond to the ads but not resort to negative campaigning. So when the McCain campaign unveiled a notably vitriolic ad Monday, McCain aides said they were merely responding to Bush’s commercial.

“This is George Bush’s ad promising America he’d run a positive campaign,” an announcer says in the McCain ad as a clip of an earlier Bush message is played. “This is George Bush shaking hands with John McCain promising not to run a negative campaign. This is George Bush’s new negative ad attacking John McCain and distorting his position.”

Then comes the hammer: “Do we really want another politician in the White House . . . America can’t trust?”

“That’s not an attack ad,” McCain said. “It’s a response.”

McCain Defends Campaign Ad

McCain insisted that the wording did not suggest Bush is dishonest but rather that the nation has weathered dishonest presidents, including Bill Clinton, and that as president he would run an honest White House.

Although Bush was campaigning in Delaware and McCain was in Michigan, both camps’ minds were really on the showdown state of South Carolina, where McCain has staked his chances on the Republican primary Feb. 19.

Bush charged that McCain has raised more campaign contributions from lobbyists and “special interests” than any other Republican candidate, an assertion McCain contests, and argued that that makes the Arizonan two-faced.

“He’s raised more money than anybody in the campaign from lobbyists and insiders,” Bush said. “I guess that’s what happens in Washington, where you say one thing and do another.”

According to campaign finance records, however, Bush has raised more money from lobbyists than McCain, part of the nearly $70-million war chest the Texas governor has amassed. Bush spokesman Ari Fleisher later explained that the front-runner meant McCain had raised more from lobbyists “as a percentage of the total amount of money he has raised.”

Asked about his own acceptance of campaign contributions from lobbyists and others with financial stakes in government decisions, Bush replied: “I’m not the person who is basing the whole campaign on a campaign funding law. This isn’t the cornerstone of my campaign; it’s the cornerstone of his campaign.”

Bush said he still intends to steer clear of personal attacks on McCain and remain “respectful of the process.” Asked by a reporter if he would define McCain’s position as “hypocrisy,” Bush laughed and said: “That’s your word.”

Later, asked what word he would use, Bush replied: “Washington.”

Bush’s fired-up offensive against what his aides see as the core of McCain’s appeal--his image as an outsider taking on the establishment--reflected a conclusion by Bush and his aides that by running as a decorous front-runner, Bush had made the political error of allowing McCain to frame the issues.

“Of the two of us running, one of us has been a reformer with results. I’ve actually accomplished something,” Bush said, reeling off a checklist of his Texas administration’s actions in education and tort, tax and welfare reforms.

Bush also spent more than an hour and a half on Monday answering questions from rooms full of citizens, a tactic seemingly borrowed from McCain, who won praise from New Hampshire voters for being more accessible than Bush.

“You’re going to see him talking with more small groups,” Hughes said. “He is very good one-on-one. I don’t think our campaign has done a very good job of making that case.”