Tower Pressed to Pull Out but Bush Vows to Win : Votes of Conservative Democrats Sought for Showdown in Senate

WASHINGTON —  President Bush vowed Friday to “win the battle” to save the endangered nomination of John Tower as secretary of defense, but pressure mounted from Democrats to have Tower withdraw and avoid a bruising Senate showdown next week.

“I do not believe he (Tower) is going down the drain,” Bush told reporters in Tokyo after attending the funeral of Japanese Emperor Hirohito. Despite Thursday night’s rejection of Tower by the Senate Armed Services Committee, “I will do whatever I can to talk to individual members (of the Senate) and have them know how strongly I feel about it,” the President said.

Quayle Meets With Tower

At the White House, Vice President Dan Quayle and Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) met with Tower to plan strategy. The GOP plan will depend heavily on a series of one-on-one sessions between Bush and conservative Democrats, whose support is crucial to Tower’s chances.

Although disappointed, Dole said, Tower is “optimistic. He’s still hopeful.”

However, one influential conservative Democrat, Sen. David L. Boren of Oklahoma, delivered a blow to White House hopes by calling on Tower to withdraw for the sake of the country and of President Bush.

And well-placed members of both parties agreed that Tower’s nomination now faces long odds in a Senate floor fight that is scheduled to begin Wednesday.

Rejected on Party Lines

“We need a defense secretary that can garner more unified support. Polarization on a nominee of this importance is not good for the country,” Boren said in a statement. The Armed Services panel’s vote against Tower was 11 to 9, along party lines.

Dole, directing the uphill effort to get Tower confirmed, said that he would be satisfied with a one-vote victory.

“If you win, nobody remembers the score,” he said.

In the Senate, composed of 55 Democrats and 45 Republicans, it would require only 50 votes to confirm Tower because the vice president could break a 50-50 tie by voting for the nomination.

Counting on All Republicans

Dole said he is counting all 45 Republican senators as pro-Tower votes and noted that Bush will meet personally with a dozen Democrats in hopes of winning the needed number of converts.

Other Senate sources said, however, that a few GOP lawmakers might vote against Tower, including Sen. Larry Pressler of South Dakota, who has said in the past that Tower’s name should be withdrawn because of the potential for conflicts of interest involving the nominee’s lobbying work for defense firms. More recently, Pressler has said that he would “reserve judgment” on the nomination.

Senate Democratic Whip Alan Cranston of California, a member of the official U.S. delegation traveling with Bush, told reporters in Tokyo that the nomination was doomed by the committee’s negative vote.

Another Democratic leader, who asked not to be identified, added:

“I can’t imagine the Administration trying to get more votes in a losing cause when it will be just an embarrassment for the President and further beating up of Tower.”

Sees Tower Withdrawing

A Democratic congressional leader, who also requested anonymity, said he was convinced that Tower would relent and withdraw his nomination. “Our crowd thinks the way this will work is that Bush can be seen as standing up for Tower while Tower can say he has decided not to put all the senators and the President to any more travail,” he said.

Several Democrats said that Bush should now concentrate on nominating someone previously confirmed for the post--such as former Defense Secretaries Donald H. Rumsfeld, a Republican who served during the Administration of Gerald R. Ford, or James R. Schlesinger, a Democrat who served under Richard M. Nixon.

But Bush insisted that he will not give up on Tower, declaring that his last-ditch push for his nominee is “not too little and not too late.”

” . . . I’m going to fight it right through to the end,” he said in a press conference before leaving Tokyo for a state visit to Beijing.

Bush said that he is looking forward to talking with senators “who still have an open mind” and would make his case for the nomination “as forcefully as I can.”

Bush Calls Bentsen

In a direct appeal to one key conservative Democrat, Bush called Sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas and asked him not to make up his mind yet. Bentsen said late Friday that he told Bush he would wait until he sees the FBI report on Tower.

However, a few Democrats began disclosing plans to vote against Tower. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) announced that he could not support Tower, saying that the public deserves a defense secretary of “unquestionable integrity.” Tower, who has been besieged by allegations of heavy drinking, womanizing and close ties to the defense industry, should withdraw and avert the brutal floor fight, Baucus said.

Like many other senators, Boren said that the opposition of Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, has influenced his stance on the Tower nomination.

Accused of ‘Partisan Binge’

Although Dole accused Nunn of going on a “partisan binge” by turning his committee against Tower, Boren asserted: “There is no other member of the Senate who has greater integrity than Sen. Sam Nunn. Time and time again he has been criticized by Democrats for not being partisan enough, and I am absolutely convinced that his vote accurately represents what he feels is best for the country.”

Others--including many members of both parties--said that they would reserve a decision but would insist on reading the massive, seven-chapter FBI report on allegations concerning the 63-year-old former Texas senator, who was once chairman of the committee that voted to deny him the top defense post.

No one looked forward to the Senate debate, which promised to be bitter, sharply partisan and intensely personal.

“It’ll be unpleasant for everyone,” Nunn said. “But it will be part of the democratic process . . . . I would have preferred that we never had this agony to begin with.”

Sen. Howell Heflin (D-Ala.), one of the Southern conservatives invited by Bush to a White House meeting to discuss the embattled nomination, said that he would approach the issue with an open mind.

In his Senate dealings with Tower, he never saw him consume too much liquor, Heflin noted, and he added: “I liked him. He was a friend of mine.”

Influenced by Nunn

But he said also that he has great respect for the judgment of Nunn, who said that Tower’s drinking problems ruled him out for a post in which he would be equivalent to “deputy commander in chief” with a key role in any use of nuclear weapons.

Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference, declared that he sees a conspiracy at work among anti-Tower forces.

“Do you think this thing with John Tower hasn’t been orchestrated?” Lott asked. “The real plan is to get John Tower out of the way so, hopefully, they can bring along a weaker secretary of defense. . . . They want John Tower out of the way because he has been strong on defense, because he has been a conservative and because he is a friend of the President.

“The President . . . knows he’s not a saint, he’s not asking that we canonize him,” Lott added. “He’s asking that we give him the man he chose.”

However, Nunn rejected the Republican criticism, saying: “I’ve noticed that, when I agree with the Republicans, I’m called a statesman. When I disagree, I’m called a partisan.”

Bentsen, the former Democratic vice presidential candidate and one of the Democrats Bush invited to the White House, is regarded as a likely pro-Tower vote because he praised the nominee during the opening hearings before the Armed Services Committee.

The two men represented Texas in the Senate together for 14 years and often teamed up to advance the state’s interests but never had a warm personal or social relationship, a Bentsen aide said.

Could Save the Day

Although some Republican sources said that Bentsen’s backing of Tower could save the day for his fellow Texan, Bentsen’s spokesman said that he is undecided.

Sen. J. James Exon (D-Neb.) said after the committee’s vote that Bush could salvage a victory on the Senate floor if he “puts on a full-court press.”

Jack Nelson reported from Tokyo and William J. Eaton reported from Washington.