Bush Links Foe to Fringe Economics : Dukakis Camp Steps Up Effort on Lie Charges

PLEASANT HILL, Calif. — A yellow banner fluttering at Michael S. Dukakis’ rally in this San Francisco suburb Tuesday morning said it best: “Mike, we like the L-word.”

But “lies,” not “liberals,” is the new L-word for the embattled Democratic presidential campaign.

In speeches, handouts, TV ads and interviews, the Dukakis camp has stepped up efforts to accuse Republican presidential nominee George Bush of lying in his speeches and ads about Dukakis’ record and positions.

Untruths Compared

“There are lies, damn lies and George Bush’s commercials,” said Dukakis campaign manager Susan Estrich in a statement given reporters here.

Aides also handed out detailed “fact sheets” entitled “Lies and Distortions in Bush/Quayle Campaign Ads,” “Bush’s Lies and Distortions About Mike Dukakis,” and “Bush’s Lies and Distortions About His Own Record.”

Dukakis’ sudden demand for truth in politics two weeks before the election appeared to be an attempt to force front-runner Bush onto the defensive for a second day. On Monday, Bush publicly denied Democratic charges that his campaign was spreading lies about Dukakis or was using racist code words, and called the charges “signs . . . of desperation.”

Dukakis aides acknowledge that blaming Bush for the unrelieved nastiness of this year’s race may be their last chance to regain voters’ attention and support. As a result, they have planned a series of events this week to emphasize the message.

In his rally at Diablo Valley College here, for example, Dukakis denounced what he called the “distortions and outright falsehoods” of a Bush TV ad that ridicules Dukakis’ ride last month in an battle tank.

“Mr. Bush knows he can’t win an election when the real issues are discussed,” Dukakis said.

To Appear on Series of Shows

At the same time, aides announced Dukakis will appear on a series of network TV news and talk shows. Aides argued that the interviews, which began last week, will show voters a sharp contrast to Bush’s more insular campaign. They also hope Dukakis can offset negative reviews of his second and final debate with Bush on Oct. 13.

“All this stuff from the second debate about ‘likebility’ and ‘warm fuzzies,’ that’s gone,” said campaign chairman Paul A. Brountas. “This is a chance for Mike Dukakis to go before the American people and talk about the issues.”

In his longest TV appearance, Dukakis was to join Ted Koppel for a 90-minute interview on ABC’s “Nightline” on Tuesday night. Koppel originally had invited both Bush and Dukakis, but only the Massachusetts governor agreed to appear.

On Thursday, Dukakis will take on Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News. He also will sit with David Frost of Fox Broadcasting. And on Friday, he will do a taped interview with NBC’s Tom Brokaw. More TV interviews will follow next week.

Months of Refusals

Dukakis’ sudden willingness to appear on live TV comes after months of refusing interview requests, however. He declined to appear on “Nightline” before the Democratic National Convention last July unless he was allowed to sit one-on-one with Koppel, instead of in a separate studio. On Tuesday night, they were side by side in the same studio.

Dukakis has not appeared on a Sunday TV talk show since before the Iowa caucuses last February. Appearing then on “Meet the Press,” he said that U.S. policy had “superseded” the Monroe Doctrine. He was forced to retract the claim the next week at a news conference in a snowbank in Derry, N.H.

Campaign spokesman Dayton Duncan also announced that Dukakis will appear in four more five-minute TV ads in coming days. On Tuesday night, the campaign repeated a 5-minute network TV spot that it originally ran last Saturday. Dukakis complains in the ad authored by Democratic consultant Robert Shrum that the GOP has used a campaign of “distortion and distraction, of fear and of smear.”

“It isn’t easy for the truth to catch up with the lies, and to clear up the fog of deception that has been spread across the campaign,” Dukakis says in the ad. “But I am determined to fight this fight.”

Aides Say Ad Works

Duncan said campaign strategists decided to repeat the same ad, instead of taping a new one, because it appeared to work. “We looked at what the focus groups told us, and our own polling, and found people overwhelmingly believe Bush is responsible for the negative campaigning,” he said.

Duncan said Dukakis would also appear in a 30-minute paid advertisement on all three networks on Nov. 7, the night before the election. The campaign also will launch a series of new TV ads this Thursday, asking citizens to “imagine” a Dukakis presidency.

Dukakis’ rally in this Contra Costa County community wound up his three-day California campaign swing. Strategists for both parties consider the East Bay County a ‘swing’ area in the state, one of several that give votes to Democrats in some elections and Republicans in others.

Dukakis already had campaigned in virtually all the other swing counties in the state--San Bernardino and Riverside in the south, Santa Clara in the southern edge of the Bay Area, and the counties of the Central Valley, to which he plans to return on Sunday.

Flies to Denver

After leaving the state, Dukakis flew to Denver, where the Koppel interview was scheduled to take place. He was met at Denver’s Stapleton Airport by a boisterous rally, and was introduced by Gov. Roy Romer, Rep. Patricia Schroeder and actress Sally Field.

Dukakis began his day by meeting about 100 black ministers and local officials at Providence Baptist Church in San Francisco’s mostly-black Bayview district. Rev. Calvin Jones said the group had requested the closed-door session to discuss “drugs, education, and unemployment for blacks.”