Clinton Lauds Congress, Gets Ready for Debate

CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. â€”  Refocusing on the campaign after an intense few days of Middle East diplomacy, President Clinton defied expectations Thursday by praising the GOP-dominated Congress for several different pieces of legislation passed in recent days.

Appearing before thousands of voters and students at Greater Buffalo International Airport, Clinton talked of how he had “celebrated� the work of Congress in the last days of its session.

“What a difference a year makes,� Clinton said, reminding the crowd about his months-long impasse with congressional Republicans a year ago.

The unusual tribute to the Republican-controlled Congress was all the more unexpected given that Clinton offered it on his way to a three-day retreat in the southwestern New York countryside, where he will bone up for his debate with Bob Dole, the Republican presidential candidate.

Clinton praised Congress for new laws requiring health insurance plans to provide 48 hours of hospitalization for new mothers, broadening insurance coverage for mental illness and providing more benefits to children of Vietnam War veterans who may have been exposed to Agent Orange.

He also praised a requirement that states test prison inmates and parolees for drugs as a condition for receiving federal funds to build prisons, and the widening of federal gun controls to forbid the sale of firearms to anyone convicted of a domestic-violence charge.

“This is a better country now,� Clinton said, referring to the measures passed by Congress. “We are moving forward.�

The list of initiatives Clinton cited were just the most recent in a long list of legislative achievements the White House and Congress have made together this year--a marked contrast to the first year of Republican control in Congress, when the White House and the GOP congressional leaders butted heads on issue after issue.

Vice President Al Gore, meanwhile, took a pilgrimage into the heart of “soccer mom� country--referring to the suburban parents that the Clinton campaign has targeted as the key swing voters in this election.

Appearing before an audience of parents and young children at a library in Garfield, N.J., Gore touted the administration’s efforts to improve television programming for children--and pointedly picked a fight with a popular program that has drawn criticism from many parents, “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.�

“I personally believe that program is extremely irresponsible,� Gore said, “and I would urge any station executive or network executive to really consider what their responsibilities are in a situation like that.�

Gore’s appearance underscored the administration’s determined effort to court parents of young children by providing them with a seemingly endless collection of “tools� meant to give “parents a little more control� against the popular culture and other outside forces, as the vice president put it.

After the Buffalo rally, Clinton flew to the Chautauqua Institute, an idyllic, internationally renowned intellectual center, where he will hunker down for a few days to concentrate on the first debate with Dole, which is scheduled for Sunday.

The president plans to spend his mornings working with key advisors on issues and conflicts likely to come up during the debate as well as practicing his presentation. He expects to take the afternoons off for relaxation and spend evenings in dress rehearsals, with former Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell standing in for Dole and White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry acting as the moderator.

For more than 100 years, Chautauqua has been a magnet for famous politicians, thinkers and other prominent Americans who wanted an audience for their ideas and oratory skills.

Lecturers whose voices have filled the air of Chautauqua have included Alexander Graham Bell, Williams Jennings Bryan, Susan B. Anthony and Jesse Jackson. Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered a famous speech--�I Hate War�--here in 1936.

Shogren reported from Chautauqua and Brownstein from Garfield.