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: 1 more shopping day for votes Date: Mon, 2 Nov 92 15:45:13 EST Message-ID: \SE A;CAMPAIGN '92 \HD 1 more shopping day for votes \SH Bush: Banking on trust \BY Frank J. Murray \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES \DT DETROIT DETROIT - President Bush staked his re-election hopes yesterday on public doubts about his opponent's character, making his case by citing new evidence Bill Clinton conspired 18 years ago to destroy ROTC records in which he lied to avoid being drafted. "The bottom line is you cannot have this pattern of deception and deceiving," Mr. Bush said during an arena rally at the Palace at Auburn Hills near Detroit. He was thwarted earlier by CNN's Frank Sesno when he tried to discuss the latest episode in the draft-avoidance saga during a live interview. "Even today we have new evidence - an affidavit - that when Governor Clinton first ran for office, his friends used special connections to seize his ROTC file and destroy all others," Mr. Bush said here and at an airport rally in Stratford, Conn., later. "Let's slam-dunk the governor from Arkansas on Tuesday," Mr. Bush said in the Michigan speech, adopting the jargon of the arena's regular tenants, the Detroit Pistons, and rejecting suggestions that he tone down what some have called "ugly" rhetoric. He ignored staff speculation about flickering polls and Electoral College tallies to focus on his last-ditch issue, claiming he'd been suffering in silence for 11 months. "I can dish it out. We'll see if they can take it," Mr. Bush said, scoffing at Mr. Clinton's plan "to play his saxophone in the White House" and noting that plans are under way for a Clinton inauguration. "Hold the phone, Bill. We are going to show that you're not going to be in the White House and you're not going to have the parade and the press are going to be wrong about you," Mr. Bush said. "The bottom line is we simply cannot take the risk on Governor Clinton - character, inexperience - his experience and character do not meet the criterion of the Oval Office," Mr. Bush said. The Washington Times on Saturday reported that during Mr. Clinton's unsuccessful 1974 campaign for Congress his associates retrieved and destroyed incriminating files from the University of Arkansas Reserve Officers Training Corps. Mr. Clinton won acceptance in the ROTC program in what he now concedes was a bid to avoid the draft. Mr. Clinton had not disclosed to ROTC officials or in those application papers that he had received two induction notices and had organized anti-war demonstrations in England. Either admission would have disqualified his ROTC application. "He's got to level with the American people on this kind of thing," Mr. Bush said at yesterday's rally. Bush campaign officials simultaneously issued a statement, along with a copy of the affidavit mentioned by the president, in which a principal source quoted by The Times confirms the facts under oath. "That Bill Clinton can only say he is 'shocked and disoriented' while others are making sworn statements about his dishonorable maneuvering speaks volumes about his lack of character," said deputy campaign manager Mary Matalin, who was traveling with the president. "If indeed Clinton is telling the truth, why doesn't he swear to it just like Don Cake did?" Miss Matalin asked. Retired Army Lt. Col. Donald Cake gave the affidavit to Bush campaign officials who inquired about the report in The Times, saying he did so after Clinton campaign officials called the report "hogwash." "My reaction to this decision [to release the records to Mr. Clinton] and the reaction of other persons in the ROTC office was total outrage," Mr. Cake says in the affidavit, which also spelled out the process by which the files were turned over to Clinton associates. Mr. Bush called the matter the latest illustration of Mr. Clinton's character. "There's been a little panic in Little Rock, because I think they see the goal that Bill Clinton has been eagerly awaiting ever since he was studying in Oxford might be slipping away from him," Mr. Bush told several thousand partisans at the basketball arena. Mr. Bush showed his exasperation when he tried to raise the issue in a CNN interview but was ignored. Instead, he was grilled over what he knew at the time about the 1986 weapons sale to Iran. Recalling the 1988 campaign when reporters wrote that he was "dogged by Iran-Contra," Mr. Bush said people are tired of the issue. When Mr. Sesno told Mr. Bush that people didn't believe him, the president snapped, "Too bad because I've told the whole truth, and if I hadn't, you can bet this highly partisan Congress would have tried to make something of it." Angrily demanding whether the entire 30-minute interview would be devoted to the topic, Mr. Bush said: "I've answered 450 questions, a lot of it under oath, 3,500 staff questions. . . . "We now have new reports about ROTC records being destroyed and you have different [Clinton] stories on different sides and I haven't done that." As if he hadn't heard, Mr. Sesno responded with yet another Iran-Contra question. The atmosphere was even more tense and electric during off-camera breaks at the La Crosse, Wis., county Republican headquarters where the "CNN Newsmakers" show was staged. Mr. Bush, who previously has had excellent relations with Mr. Sesno, glared silently as the commentator tried several times to ease the tension with smiles and light comment. "It's almost over," Mr. Sesno told Mr. Bush during the last break, but Mr. Bush made no sign he heard. Mr. Bush, who often ridicules "Sunday talking heads," might have gotten an early sign of how it would go when Mr. Sesno greeted him to the show. "Welcome, Mr. President, to one of those nutty Sunday talk shows," Mr. Sesno said with a grin. Mr. Bush got a lot of mileage yesterday out of a Baghdad wire story, pronouncing himself "thrilled" that Saddam Hussein planned a celebration party Wednesday for Mr. Clinton's victory. "Hold the phone, Saddam. They're not going to have a demonstration in Baghdad, because they're going to have to contend with me four more years," Mr. Bush said at a rally here with seven high school bands and countless cheerleaders. Among campaign-produced signs held by the crowd: "Hillary has fat ankles," "No sex or Gore in the White House" and "Hillary doesn't trust Bill. Why should we?" Anticipating criticism over raising the draft issue again, Mr. Bush sought once again to explain his focus on questions of truth. "Listen, a lot of people opposed the war and I understand that. That's not the point here," he told the predominantly young audience. "The point is there is a pattern of deception. On one side of the issue one day and another side the next. And you cannot do that in the Oval Office," Mr. Bush said. 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