Dukakis Unveils Attack Speech in Bid to Blitz Bush

GREENSBURG, Pa. — An energized, confident Michael S. Dukakis turned to attack Wednesday, unleashing a new, sharper speech that lambasted Vice President George Bush on a series of issues, starting with government ethics.

For weeks, while Bush relentlessly attacked him on emotional issues, from the Pledge of Allegiance to his membership in the American Civil Liberties Union, Dukakis exasperated his advisers and supporters with an apparent unwillingness to hit back. No more.

Hear the new stump speech Dukakis unleashed at a rally here before flying to New York for short meetings with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze and his West German counterpart, Hans Dietrich Genscher.

On Ethics: “Dozens and dozens of top Administration officials . . . broke the law or violated the public trust. (Bush) may be satisfied with letting Japan make the cars while his former colleagues make the license plates . . . . We can do better.”

On Bush’s proposal for a new tax-deferred Individual Savings Account: “Twenty bucks a year! . . . When it comes to taxes and tax breaks, George Bush plays Santa Claus for the wealthy and Ebenezer Scrooge to the rest of us.”

On Social Security: “George Bush . . . called Social Security ‘largely a welfare program’ . . . . Lloyd Bentsen and I will never break that contract.”

Dukakis and his staff concede that the Bush campaign beat them in the first half of the fall campaign--before last Sunday’s presidential debate. But, they say, the debate got them back into the game.

Seek to Blitz Bush

Now, running with their new attack lines, which drew cheers and hoots of laughter from the crowd here, the Democrats hope to blitz Bush hard before the Republicans can regroup and regain their pre-debate momentum.

As part of the strategy to keep attention focused on Dukakis, the campaign also plans to continue issuing a series of specific proposals on major issues.

Wednesday, Dukakis offered a new set of tougher federal ethics guidelines that he said he would sign as his first executive order. Today, he plans to announce an environmental program, hoping to recapture an issue on which Bush has made a surprisingly strong showing.

In an effort to make his appearances punchier, Dukakis has shortened his speech considerably from the version he had been using at the beginning of the week.

The revamped speech appears to have two major purposes. One clearly is to hit Bush harder.

In addition, the speech now contains a section in which Dukakis, with considerable emotion, talks about how proud his immigrant father would have been had he lived to see his son running for President.

‘Product of American Dream’

“I am a product of the American Dream,” he told the crowd, most of whom were also of European immigrant stock. “We want to make that dream come true for every single citizen of this land.”

The passage seemed designed to treat one of the most serious problems Dukakis continues to face--the image many voters have of him as a cold technocrat with few passions.

One passion Dukakis indisputably has is for “good government,” the topic of Wednesday’s proposed executive order on ethics. The proposal would tighten current rules in two ways.

Currently, high-level federal officials are barred from lobbying their former agencies for one year after leaving office. They are also forbidden to lobby officials for three years on specific projects they worked on when in government service. Under Dukakis’ order, lobbying would be forbidden for the life of the Administration. Those who served throughout the Administration would still be governed by the current rules afterwards.

In addition, for at least some officials--Cabinet officers and the most senior members of the White House staff--Dukakis would expand the scope of the lobbying ban. Currently, those officials are barred from lobbying their own former agencies. Dukakis would bar them from lobbying any part of the executive branch.

‘Deaver Loophole’ Cited

Dukakis would also close the so-called “Deaver loophole,” under which the Reagan Administration has divided the White House staff into nine separate “agencies” for purposes of ethics rules. Under that ruling, Michael K. Deaver, Reagan’s longtime personal aide, who worked for the Executive Office of the President, argued that he was free to lobby those White House officials who worked for the Office of Management and Budget.

After leaving office, Deaver was convicted of lying to federal investigators about his lobbying activities, but he could not be charged with ethics violations relating to the lobbying itself.

Deaver’s name was the first on a list of “The George Bush Hall of Shame” that Dukakis campaign aides distributed to the crowd here Wednesday. The list contains the names of 64 former Administration officials who, the Democrats charge, “were convicted, forced to resign or misused their office for personal gain.”

Of those on the list, however, at least some were subsequently cleared after their resignations. Others, such as former Interior Secretary James G. Watt, came under fire because of political, not personal, indiscretions.

When asked about the “Hall of Shame” list, Bush chief of staff Craig Fuller replied: “Dukakis is making some very serious accusations. He’s got a former secretary of education (Gerard T. Indelicato) in prison right now. It’s one thing to compare positions on issues. It’s quite another to level charges and typecast people who serve in the Administration.”

Earlier this election year, Democrats were making much of the so-called “sleaze issue” in attacking the Republicans. The ethical problems of Democratic House Speaker Jim Wright of Texas drove that issue out of the campaign for awhile.

New Twist to Ethics Issue

Now the ethics issue appears to be back, but with a twist. Rather than attacking the Republicans simply on grounds of corruption, Dukakis is hoping to raise questions about Bush’s “judgment” and the qualifications of the people surrounding him. Public unease about Bush’s choice of Sen. Dan Quayle of Indiana as a running mate has created an opening to exploit that judgment question, the Democrats believe.

The Dukakis campaign has also seized gleefully on the Individual Savings Account plan that Bush announced Tuesday. Bush’s plan would allow middle-income taxpayers to put up to $1,000 a year in savings accounts and defer tax on the interest, a move that would save taxpayers about $20 a year or less, Bush aides conceded.

In his speech, Dukakis heaped scorn on Bush’s claim that the savings plan would help the middle class. “Get this,” Dukakis told the crowd as he waved a crumpled $20 bill. “These are his words: He says it will make it possible for us to afford a home. Twenty bucks! Pay for college. Twenty bucks! Or start a business, with 20 bucks.”

The Democrats believe the Republican plan is a major blunder that opens Bush to a populist attack contrasting the paltry benefit he would offer middle-class taxpayers with the much larger cut he has advocated for those taxpayers, mostly wealthy, who have substantial capital gains.

Sees Wealthy Benefiting

Dukakis claims the capital gains tax reduction Bush advocates would provide at least some wealthy people a tax break worth $30,000.

Bush, when asked Wednesday about Dukakis’ criticism of the savings plan, scoffed: “He doesn’t understand it.”

In New York late Wednesday, after his meeting with Shevardnadze, Dukakis and the Soviet foreign minister issued brief statements emphasizing the need for “consistency and continuity” in U.S.-Soviet relations. Shevardnadze added that the talk had been “interesting, constructive and profound.”

Staff writer James Gerstenzang, with the Bush campaign, contributed to this story.