Bush Strategists’ Attack on Dole May Hurt Both Camps

DES MOINES —  Vice President George Bush’s Iowa strategists tried to get under Kansas Sen. Bob Dole’s skin this week in the heated closing days of the first real test of the 1988 GOP presidential campaign.

The Bush forces succeeded in doing just that, with a personal attack on Dole by the vice president’s state campaign chairman. The trouble is the Bush gambit succeeded so well that some analysts think the net result will be to hurt not just the intended target, Dole, but Bush as well in Monday night’s returns in Iowa, not to mention increasing voter alienation with the political process.

“It’s gone beyond what we expected,” a senior Bush campaign official conceded Friday, the morning after an angry Dole vented his fury with Bush in a face to face confrontation on the Senate floor. “Dole didn’t just react, he reacted in spades. He dragged Bush into it.”

Hugh Winebrenner, a Drake University political scientist who has made a specialty of the Iowa caucus process, said: “Now it seems that they are both wallowing in the mud.”

A Heavy Handed Assault

On Friday both candidates initially sought to distance themselves from the flap, which began Wednesday when George Wittgraf, Bush’s Iowa campaign chairman, issued a heavy handed assault on what he said was Dole’s record of “mean spiritedness” and “cronyism.” The statement also said that a blind trust formerly maintained for Dole’s wife, Elizabeth, is now under federal investigation.

“I’ve made my statement to the vice president,” Dole said. “ . . . I told him I thought he owed my wife an apology. That’ll be a judgment he has to make. As far as I’m concerned that’s the end of it.”

Bush told reporters he had not read the entire Wittgraf statement and didn’t intend to. He told a community gathering in Watertown, S.D., that he would “put the pressure on” any Bush campaign official who strayed into negative campaigning.

He also conceded to reporters that it’s “fair to say” his stance of claiming to be on the high road was a bit disingenuous in the wake of the Wittgraf assault.

But both men just as quickly got back into their scrape. Bush said Wittgraf had been provoked by incessant knocks from the Dole campaign, and Bush aides released an eight-page list of quotes by Dole that they considered slaps at the vice president. The Dole camp in turn had the Dole Iowa campaign chairman, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), accuse Bush of being “two-faced” about claiming to be personally on “the high road” in the campaign.

Peril for Both Camps

The continuation of the confrontation now appears to hold peril for both camps, although initially it looked like Dole might be falling for one of the oldest stunts in American politics, a game that might be called “bait the candidate.” The way it’s played is for an underling in one campaign to provoke the candidate of another campaign into losing his temper, thus making the candidate under attack look foolish while the underling’s candidate remains above the fray.

When Dole exploded with righteous indignation at Wittgraf, whom he accused of “gutter politics,” Bush aides grinned broadly while Dole’s advisers fretted.

“It’s not appropriate for a candidate for President to be arguing with his opponent’s state chairman,” said David Keene, senior consultant to the Dole campaign. But Dole, aided by his experience in past political frays too numerous to remember, was soon able to figure that out and act accordingly by forcing his dramatic confrontation with Bush.

“By taking it to Bush he put the argument on the proper level,” Keene said.

A Sense of Uneasiness

It was clear Friday that the initial sense of jubilation among Bush strategists had been transformed into a sense of uneasiness. “I think the jury is still out on this thing,” said Pete Teeley, Bush communications director, who predicted hopefully: “This thing will start dying down. It’s been a distraction that’s taken attention away from the campaign.”

Mary Louise Smith, former Republican national chairman and one of Bush’s staunchest supporters in this state, said: “I am not comfortable with a lot of negative campaigning. My fear is that people will be further alienated by this happening in the last days of the campaign and say it’s all just politics.”

Another of the Republican candidates, New York Rep. Jack Kemp, warned that such bickering between Bush and Dole could hurt the overall Republican effort. “I know one thing, the Democrats are pleased to see it,” Kemp said. “People are geting turned off,” he added, urging that instead of conducting “a debate over resumes” Bush and Dole should focus on issues.

“They’ve both made themselves look silly,” said Kemp Press Secretary John Buckley of Bush and Dole.

‘Should Start Behaving’

“I think they should both start behaving like decent Republicans,” said Betty Ehmen, an Iowa voter who was wearing a Bush button at a Dole rally Friday in Parkersburg. “Everybody is getting fed up with the whole thing.”

The list of Dole quotes released by the Bush campaign on Friday varied from sharp criticisms of Bush by name to vague comments by Dole that irked the vice president’s team.

Some excerpts:

“I just can’t fly off (to campaign) like the vice president. Some of us have work to do.”

“My resume may not be quite as long, but I have been making decisions, and Bush really hasn’t been making decisions since he left Congress in 1970.”

“I have a record of leadership and he doesn’t. And I assume it’s getting to him. That’s what it’s all about--leadership--and I can’t help it if he hasn’t provided any.”

“I went to public schools. Some of the candidates didn’t have that advantage.”

Asked for a comment, Dole said: “I think it was a great compilation.”

Staff writers Cathleen Decker and Bob Secter contributed to this story.