POLITICS ’88 : New Tactics Seek to Parry VP’s Blows : Dukakis Strikes Back at Bush Attacks

BOSTON — Michael S. Dukakis struck back Thursday at Vice President George Bush, whose attacks on the Massachusetts governor in recent weeks have apparently raised doubts about Dukakis with some voters.

Before heading West on a campaign swing Thursday, Dukakis ridiculed Bush for supporting President Reagan’s veto of a bill that would warn workers if their plant is being shut down.

The Senate’s passage of a new plant-closing bill, and Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III’s announcement that he will resign in 30 days, provided the opening.

“I applaud the Senate action,” Dukakis said at a news conference in the Massachusetts Statehouse. “Meese got 30 days’ notice. I think it is rather ironic that the President and vice president don’t think that honest, hard-working American workers are entitled to at least what Mr. Meese is getting.

“Perhaps the vice president will change his mind on this issue as he has on offshore drilling and new taxes.”

In the first example, Dukakis was referring to Bush’s break with the Administration over plans to sell oil leases off the California coast. But the second charge surprised reporters, since Bush recently pledged never to raise taxes as President.

When challenged Thursday, Dukakis argued: “The no-tax pledge went out the window last week. The President signed the catastrophic health insurance bill. It’s going to impose $6 billion in new taxes for elderly citizens and the vice president supports it.”

Bush Campaign Displeased

Kirk O’Donnell, a senior adviser to the Dukakis campaign, said Thursday: “The Bush campaign is displeased that the Democratic primary didn’t produce a standard liberal nominee. . . . Dukakis has balanced budgets and cut taxes as governor. So Bush has been banging him around on specific issues to try to paint him as a liberal, and with some success.”

O’Donnell was referring to Bush’s attacks in the last month, in which he noted that Dukakis had to raise some Massachusetts taxes recently in a budget crisis, that he vetoed a law requiring schoolchildren to say the Pledge of Allegiance and that murderers were given prison furloughs under a state program.

Polls taken after those attacks found that Dukakis’ lead over Bush had narrowed considerably, with much of the soft Dukakis support moving into the undecided column.

Dukakis, who contends that the voters are more interested in the candidates’ visions for the country than they are in attacks, has seemed reluctant to start swinging at Bush this early in the campaign.

But there has been a clear sense that Bush has won round one since the two men locked up their parties’ nominations. So Dukakis’ tactics have changed, according to O’Donnell.

“What he did today deals with the problem,” O’Donnell said.

Also on Thursday, Dukakis addressed the annual convention of the League of Latin American Citizens in Dallas.

Asked by reporters if he stands by a pledge he made a year ago to appoint a Latino to his Cabinet, Dukakis said he did. But he refused to make any other promises about minority appointments, saying only that affirmative action would be stressed in his presidency.