THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 18, 1996 TAG: 9610180024
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A15 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: OPINION
SOURCE: Keith Monroe
LENGTH: 84 lines
In debate Wednesday and on the stump, Bob Dole has begun attacking President Clinton on the so-called character issue - actually, an ill-assorted congeries that runs the gamut from philandering and cronyism in Arkansas to abuses of power and alleged cover-up in the White House. For months, as Dole has trailed the president in the polls, his supporters have wondered what was holding him back. A number of possibilities come to mind.
This is Dole's last hurrah. Win or lose, he clearly hoped to go out with dignity, not in an orgy of mudslinging. Dole got typed early as a slasher and hatchet man for President Nixon. In a 1976 race for vice president, Dole stooped to calling World War I and World War II Democrat wars. Some friends believe Dole repented of the smear and the stink bomb after that campaign.
There's mounting evidence that the public has grown weary of a constant barrage of negativity and has started to hold it against politicians. Some of Dole's advisers feared that attacks could hurt him more than Clinton.
Furthermore, the voters Dole needs most may be hardest to attract with attacks. He'll win the Clinton-haters and isn't going to get committed Democrats unless the president is marched off in leg irons like Susan McDougal. That leaves swing voters, and a lot of them are women. Unfortunately for Dole, women seem especially turned off by negative campaigns.
Americans tend to favor sunny, optimistic candidates. Dole's a bit grim-visaged in the best of circumstances. Snarling his way to the finish line would contrast badly with the Pollyanna of American politics.
Dole has to worry about the apparent immunity of Clinton to attack. Like Mithridates in the poem, who built up a tolerance to poison by taking small doses daily, it may take really toxic attacks to damage Clinton. For four years, Clinton has been accused of everything from marital infidelity to murder. What can Dole say about him that hasn't already been said?
Also, despite enough smoke to suggest a forest fire, there's no smoking gun. Students of American politics note that scandals no longer scandalize unless they can be encapsulated in a sound bite. ``President covers up Watergate burglary.'' ``President sends arms to Iran, cash to Contras.'' The allegations surrounding Whitewater, Filegate and the travel office are troubling, but instead of a single bombshell there's been a gathering web of insinuations.
Modern campaign theory advises candidates to save the haymakers until the last minute - in time for the public to react with horror, too late for the other side to get up off the mat. Maybe Dole has been waiting to unload.
But the most likely reason Dole has been reluctant to roll out the big guns may be fear of damaging counterattacks. Dole has implicitly been running as Mr. Clean. An informal truce on ethics and misuse of power has worked to his advantage without exposing him to scrutiny.
Now that Dole has gone negative, he'll take return fire. And it could be wounding. Though Dole has been running as a small town Kansas boy who served valiantly in World War II, he has spent more than 30 years at the center of power in Washington. He's got the baggage to prove it.
If Hillary had an unusually successful foray into the commodities markets, Elizabeth Dole seems to have gotten special treatment on at least one stock investment.
Clinton cronies have wound up in jail, but so did David Owen, a man entrusted with managing a blind trust for the Doles that may have had one eye open. It appears to have profited from congressional actions that Dole influenced.
Dole has been hitting Clinton hard on apparent violations of campaign-finance laws, but this campaign is the worst swamp of soft money on record. Neither side is clean and neither is talking about campaign-finance reform.
It is claimed that campaign contributors from Arkansas to Indonesia tried to buy favorable treatment from Clinton, but Dole has got his own problems if the discussion turns to the quid pro quo culture of Washington. He may even have his own Indonesians.
Dole was deeply implicated for years in enacting legislation financially beneficial to heavy campaign donors. He's flown the country on the corporate jet of Archer-Daniels-Midland while describing himself as Senator Ethanol for his central role in passing special tax breaks for the company's ethanol-fuel program. He pocketed Gallo contributions while helping to engineer estate-tax loopholes worth hundreds of millions to the Gallo family.
There's nothing wrong with Dole raising issues of ethics and misuse of power against Clinton if the facts warrant, nor in Clinton firing back. But these complex issues can't be addressed in sound bites. Voters who care about fund-raising chicanery and cozy relations with special interests will have to examine the public record and make their own judgment concerning what kind of characters are seeking the presidency. MEMO: Mr. Monroe is editor of the editorial page of The Virginian-Pilot. by CNB