Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Perot: 'Crazy man' or Date: Tue, 27 Oct 92 13:27:07 EST Message-ID: \SE A \HD Perot: 'Crazy man' or victim? \SH Texan's claims of GOP tricks won't go away \BY Hugh Aynesworth \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES \DT DALLAS DALLAS - Ross Perot, clearly dismayed by White House attacks on his veracity, aimed his fire yesterday at the messengers who passed along his bizarre charges of Republican dirty tricks intended to sink his independent campaign for president. "I am sick and tired of you people questioning my integrity," he told reporters at an impromptu news briefing here. And twice he snapped "It's none of your business!" at questioners he didn't want to answer. The fireworks began as Mr. Perot strode into the regular campaign news briefing yesterday morning to help his son, Ross Jr., who had been gamely trying to field questions on new allegations of GOP "dirty tricks" made by Mr. Perot at Sunday rallies in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. According to Mr. Perot - at the rallies and later on CBS-TV's "60 Minutes" - the real reason for his unexpected withdrawal from the race in July was that he feared GOP hirelings planned to embarrass his daughter, Carolyn, with faked composite photographs to be released before her Aug. 23 wedding here. In Denver yesterday, a clearly exasperated Marlin Fitzwater called Mr. Perot a "crazy man" and likened his claim of GOP skulduggery to flying-saucer reports. "He's not offered one shred of evidence," the White House press secretary said. "He never saw the pictures. He won't tell you who he talked to. The FBI says it's wrong. Everybody who has looked into this says there's nothing to it. . . . "It's crazy, but he seems to have latched onto this theory much like other people latch onto the UFO theory and he seems to believe it. . . . "I think the news media needs to take a look at this, because they're the only ones left who can investigate it and prevent us from electing a paranoid person who has delusions. This man simply cannot see the truth. . . . I'm asking a responsible news media who is going to listen to these charges and carry this crazy man's theories to at least look into the facts and report to the American people." Mr. Perot said Sunday and again yesterday he had no proof that the Republicans were the culprits - or even that such a plan existed. But he repeatedly said he found it "highly unusual" that President Bush, who had telephoned him and asked for a private meeting hours after he withdrew in July, canceled "after I told them I wanted an eyeball-to-eyeball meeting [about the] plan to smear my daughter at her wedding." Mr. Perot added: "Now let's put it on a personal basis. . . . Something this bizarre, wouldn't you respond? Wouldn't you, particularly if you wanted the millions of people who supported that man to support you? Wouldn't you at least call back and say, 'Well, we've looked into this. We didn't do it. We don't know anybody who did it.' Two times they walked away from it. Nobody ever called back." White House and Bush campaign officials have said Mr. Perot was told personally by President Bush and his chief of staff, James A. Baker III, that his information was wrong. Mr. Baker also said Barbara Bush told Mr. Perot and his wife, Margot, in person that the charges were false and challenged Mr. Perot to provide at least "some little scintilla of evidence." Mr. Perot said Sunday he had been told the Republicans "doctored" a photo of his daughter and planned to distribute it. Sources within the Perot campaign said the photos were supposed to depict the young woman as a lesbian - "something they thought would turn off Mr. Perot's backers." The billionaire Texan also charged that the GOP had intended to wiretap his office in an attempt to ruin him financially. Again, he offered no proof, and Buck Revill, the special agent in charge of the Dallas FBI office, said his agents had found no evidence of wiretapping. At yesterday's press briefing, Mr. Perot insisted that the questions about dirty tricks - which he raised - have no place in a presidential campaign. "I call this gorilla dust," he snapped at one point, explaining that when gorillas fight they usually toss dust in the air. Reporters tried to pin down earlier Perot reports that five would-be assassins charged through his yard in 1970 to kill him for his POW-MIA activities in Vietnam at the time. Mr. Perot said he slept through the incident but was told about it the next morning. When asked if he remembered it, Ross Perot Jr. said he was only 13 years old and didn't hear anything but was told of the incident by his father. A testy Mr. Perot said the Dallas police were not contacted at the time because one of the would-be assassins was badly bitten in the buttocks by an attack dog and his people wanted to keep the matter quiet so the man would not fear getting medical attention in the area. Perot security men kept a watch on the hospitals, he added. "Our interest was 'Is this guy going to show up in a hospital anywhere?' " Mr. Perot said. "We thought he had to - and he didn't." In an aside that provided one of the few moments of levity, Mr. Perot said, "When you look at the piece of that guy that the dog had in his mouth, that guy's sitting somewhere with a list somewhere today." Mr. Perot said that the American people aren't interested in this kind of coverage and that he did not intend to address the issues in the future. "You're pursuing this like I just stole money from the U.S. Treasury," he snapped. "You will pursue this with far more intensity than you would a story where billions of taxpayers' money were wasted on Saddam Hussein. I don't understand your priorities, but it's your right to do whatever you want to." * Frank J. Murray, traveling with the Bush campaign, contributed to this report. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM