
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, September 22, 1995                   TAG: 9509220102
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

RIVAL ATTACKS DOLE

Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., came under some of the harshest criticism of the GOP presidential campaign Thursday as rival Lamar Alexander accused him of having failed as a conservative leader even as Dole sought to bolster his conservative support by making an ally out of former Vice President Dan Quayle, a hero to many on the right.

Focusing particularly on the newly approved welfare reform bill, Alexander pointedly contrasted Dole's performance as GOP Senate leader with the achievements of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, to whom he awarded an ``A-plus.''

``In the Senate, that level of leadership has been missing,'' Alexander declared in a speech to the Cato Institute, a Washington-based libertarian think tank

Alexander's attack highlighted the increasing number of salvos that rival candidates have been aiming at Dole's performance as the GOP Senate leader. The address by the former Tennessee governor and U.S. Education secretary, whose candidacy has yet to catch fire, seemed an attempt to bolster his claim to be the outsider candidate by depicting Dole as a prototypical Washington insider with all the sins allegedly inherent in that breed.

Alexander cited the defeat of the balanced budget constitutional amendment and of regulatory reform measures in the first weeks of this Congressional session as early ``ominous signs'' that the Republican revolution ignited by the midterm election results was losing steam on Capitol Hill. And Alexander called the welfare bill, which Dole steered to Senate passage earlier this week, ``an affront to the ideas that helped our party win so decisively last year.''

Meantime, the new Dole-Quayle relationship consists of Quayle's taking on the chairmanship of Citizens for America, Dole's political action committee, from which Dole formally separated himself when he announced his presidential candidacy last April.

The arrangement offers potential advantages to both men. Dole can hope that an association with Quayle will help him pick up some of the affection that many conservatives feel for the former vice president.

Keywords:
POLITICS

by CNB