Tables Turned in High Court Skirmish : Judiciary: Conservatives are running ‘attack ads’ against liberal senators. They have not forgotten a campaign four years ago against nominee Bork.

WASHINGTON —  Four years ago, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy organized Southern blacks to oppose the nomination of Supreme Court nominee Robert H. Bork, and liberal groups mounted a million-dollar advertising campaign to paint Bork as a reactionary on civil rights and abortion.

The campaign worked. Bork was beaten almost before the September hearings began.

But this year, in the days before the Senate Judiciary Committee opens hearings on Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, the tables have been turned. Now, conservative groups are running “attack ads” targeting Kennedy, while he and other liberals in the Senate have been nearly silent.

The skirmishing in advance of the hearings Tuesday shows starkly how the political outlook for the Thomas nomination differs from that of the Bork battle of 1987.

As a law professor, Bork had opposed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and called the Roe vs. Wade abortion rights ruling an “abomination.” From the start, his nomination sparked opposition.

By contrast, Thomas grew up poor and black, and is a staunch advocate of equal treatment for all. While groups such as the NAACP and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights have voted to oppose him, his nomination has not set off intense, grass-roots opposition. Senators returning to Washington this week have told their staffs that they heard little reaction against Thomas in their home states.

But conservative activists have not forgotten the Bork fight.

On Wednesday, they cited the “mean, malicious and vicious campaign of character assassination” against Bork as the reason for running a pro-Thomas television ad that contains unusually personal attacks on three Senate Democrats: Alan Cranston of California, Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware and Massachusetts’ Kennedy.

They described their ad as a preemptive strike against a possible anti-Thomas ad campaign sponsored by “liberal special interests.” So far, no such campaign has materialized.

“If they want to go into the gutter, they are going to have to contend with us,” said L. Brent Bozell III, whose Conservative Victory Committee produced the ad.

He said that his group had raised $100,000 to broadcast the ad only in the Washington area.

“Whose values should be on the Supreme Court? Clarence Thomas’? Or Ted Kennedy’s?,” the ad says. As a photo of Kennedy appears on the screen, the announcer refers to “Chappaquiddick where Mary Jo Kopechne died” and “Palm Beach.” It describes Biden as having been “found guilty of plagiarism” while Cranston was implicated in the ‘Keating Five’ S&L; scandal.”

President Bush condemned the ad Wednesday as “offensive” and “totally counterproductive.” The White House was not informed in advance about the ad nor did it encourage its production, officials said. Thomas earlier had denounced the ad for its “viciousness.”

Meanwhile, Gary L. Bauer, a domestic policy adviser to former President Ronald Reagan, previewed for reporters a different TV and radio ad that also touts Thomas, but does not mention any Democrats by name. Instead, it says that Thomas is opposed by “liberal special interests” and the “soft-on-crime crowd.” With a budget of $300,000, Bauer says that his ad will run nationwide on the Cable News Network and in several Southern states.

“If the liberals want to have a political battle,” Bauer said, “we’re ready to go.”

But liberal groups are not ready. They said that they have not raised enough money to run an expensive TV campaign against Thomas.

Sen. Biden, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, has spent recent weeks at his home in Wilmington, Del., preparing for the hearings, but has withheld comment on Thomas. Kennedy, who launched an attack on Bork on the day of his nomination, has also kept quiet, saying only that he is waiting for the hearings. Last week, he was in Palm Beach to testify before a grand jury considering obstruction of justice charges growing out of the rape charge against his nephew, William Kennedy Smith.

Though not a member of the Judiciary Committee, Cranston said in July that he would vote against Thomas if the nominee opposes the right to abortion. So far, Thomas has not explicitly stated his position on the issue.

By late Wednesday, Bozell and his conservative allies were ready to back off, too. He issued a statement saying his attack ad would not be aired “if those left-wing individuals and organizations (who attacked Bork) agree to refrain from any direct or indirect campaign against Judge Thomas.”

Staff writer James Gerstenzang in Washington contributed to this report.