ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 8, 1996 TAG: 9608080049
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SAN DIEGO
SOURCE: Associated Press
NOTE: Above
Republicans struck a compromise in their abortion struggle Wednesday that kept the party's strict anti-abortion plank intact but allowed moderates to register their dissent elsewhere in the platform.
The deal was struck in backroom negotiations that began Tuesday evening as Bob Dole's campaign sought to head off a divisive floor abortion floor fight during nationally televised convention proceedings next week.
Under the agreement, amendments that were submitted to the platform committee but defeated would be published in a platform appendix. This would include more than a dozen unsuccessful attempts to soften the abortion plank, which calls for a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion.
Abortion foes who dominated the platform discussions approved the appendix idea after being assured its contents would cover all the disagreements and not single out abortion.
The idea was also approved by abortion-rights backers who had threatened a floor fight if their views were not somehow acknowledged in the platform. Leaders of this effort included the GOP governors of California, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.
``I think an appendix is OK as long as the pro-choice position is set out in full and it's an appendix to the platform,'' Massachusetts Gov. William Weld said earlier in the day, rating the chances of a deal at 50-50.
Sources close to the deliberations said one strength of the idea was that an appendix could be added at the discretion of platform chairman Henry Hyde, without a vote from the committee, which repeatedly rejected attempts Tuesday to soften the anti-abortion plank.
Hyde confirmed discussions about adding ``a resource document'' to the platform.
``Clearly it's not in the Dole campaign's interest to have a floor fight,'' he said. ``Those who want to precipitate one are not interested in Senator Dole's well-being but in some other ideological goal.'' Senior Dole campaign aides held a conference call with several GOP abortion-rights activists Wednesday to urge them to accept the appendix idea as a compromise and end talk of a floor fight.
Beyond abortion, the platform committee adopted a tough line Wednesday on the immigration issue, approving language seeking to deny automatic American citizenship to U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants.
The plank also calls for citizenship to be denied to children born in this country of short-term residents.
The length of residency was deliberately left vague, but architects of the plank said it was intended to keep children of temporary workers, students and tourists from getting automatic citizenship.
Platform delegates also signaled support for expanding the death penalty to particularly vicious rapists. They called for revisiting a 1977 Supreme Court decision blocking such executions.
An amendment proposed jointly by Weld, California Gov. Pete Wilson and Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe - stating ``we acknowledge and respect the honest convictions that divide us on the question of abortion'' - was rejected by the committee Tuesday.
Platform language approved by the committee maintains the Republican position that abortion should be constitutionally banned. The platform describes diversity in party views as a strength but does not name abortion as an example.
In earlier committee deliberations, delegates voted in favor of banning women from ground combat while letting them fight in other military operations.
Homosexuality was declared ``incompatible with military service.''
The committee turned back an attempt to deny favored trading status to countries such as China that are seen as practicing certain human rights abuses.
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Dusty Bottom of New Mexico, a member of the GOPby CNBplatform committee, addresses a hearing Wednesday. The committee
took a hard line on immigration restrictions and also signaled
support for expanding the death penalty to particularly vicious
rapists. color. KEYWORDS: POLITICS PRESIDENT