McCain, Forbes Sharpen the Rhetoric Against Bush

Republican front-runner George W. Bush fended off attacks on two fronts Friday: John McCain accused him of negative campaigning and Steve Forbes lashed out at his abortion record.

McCain, in South Carolina, criticized a Bush television ad that accuses the Arizona senator of promoting a $40-billion tax hike. McCain released his own 30-second spot that accuses Bush of “political attacks” and counters that he actually would cut taxes.

Campaigning in Iowa, Texas Gov. Bush responded by saying his rival is running “inaccurate” ads that criticize Bush’s tax plan for failing to shore up Social Security. He called McCain’s charges “one of the oldest tricks in the book.”

Neither of the ads is particularly egregious. Both feature straightforward images of the candidates dressed in suits discussing tax deductions and loopholes. The ads are mild compared to some broadcast in previous presidential primaries. However, given a sense of voter antipathy toward any negative campaigning this election season, the ads drew more attention than usual.

The sharpened rhetoric pointed out the stakes just days from Monday’s Iowa caucuses. Publisher Forbes, who is running second in the polls, hopes a strong showing will undercut Bush and give Forbes a boost in the New Hampshire primary eight days later.

McCain, who is not campaigning in Iowa, needs a win in New Hampshire to sustain his upstart campaign. Bush believes he can mortally wound McCain there, solidifying his chances to lock up the GOP nomination.

The Bush ad “was a violation of our handshake agreement and an attack ad,” McCain said, referring to an informal compact the two reached during one of the debates.

The Bush ad charges that McCain’s $237-billion tax-cut plan ends certain corporate tax deductions that would result in a $40-billion tax hike.

McCain responded by providing reporters with an outline of tax loopholes he would close, including deductions for corporate parking and spa and golf club memberships. He also commissioned a study that cited $4 billion as the amount of new taxes that corporations would pay as a result of the lost deductions.

Campaigning Friday in Grinnell, Iowa, where he took a downtown walk in frosty 11-degree weather, Bush defended his plan for a $483-billion tax cut against the new McCain ad.

“He can say anything he wants,” Bush said of the man he usually describes as “my friend John McCain.”

Earlier in the day, McCain tried to focus on his promise to clamp down on Internet pornography, appearing at a library in Greenville, S.C., where a convicted sex offender recently was discovered accessing pornographic sites.

However, the debate quickly turned to the abortion issue, as several in the overflow audience asked for McCain’s position. The candidate, who has wrestled with the issue in the past, seemed uncomfortable with the discussion, describing it as “one of the most difficult” in political life today.

“We have to make decisions in life. We have to balance one thing against the other,” McCain told a 21-year-old man who quizzed him about the distinction between abortions for rape and abortions on demand. “I’ve studied, I’ve had consultation and I’ve prayed. I came up with the position that there ought to be an exception for rape, incest and the health of the mother.”

In Cedar Rapids, Forbes pressed his attack on abortion, winning applause from the 80 seniors and students at the half-filled auditorium at Kirkwood Community College when he repeated his contention that Bush is wobbly on abortion. He called Bush “the great pretender.”

“You’ve got to take a stand,” Forbes said. “The presidency is not for someone who does not have strong principles.”

The Democrats also stumped across Iowa, with Vice President Al Gore guarding against over-confidence and former Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey grappling with renewed questions about his health.

Gore refused to acknowledge his apparent lead over Bradley--but moved to undercut any efforts Bradley may make to play down the effect of poor showings here or on the next stop of the campaign.

“He’s bet everything on this and New Hampshire,” Gore said during a brief picture-taking session in front of the snow-covered fields of a farm in Perry.

Asked whether he felt like a winner, the vice president said: “I’m working with every ounce of breath I have to get one more vote than the other guy . . . I’m focused on doing my best at getting one more vote than Bradley gets.”

Bradley powered through the second day of a four-day bus trip through snowy southeast Iowa on Friday, determined to bolster support for his campaign even as he was dogged by questions about a heart condition.

Bradley, who revealed Thursday night that he has experienced four episodes of an irregular heartbeat this month, brushed aside questions of whether that will hurt him at the Iowa caucus on Monday night, insisting it is a minor condition that will not affect his candidacy.

*

Times staff writers James Gerstenzang, with the Gore campaign, and Matea Gold, with the Bradley campaign, contributed to this story.