ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 17, 1996 TAG: 9609170105
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
Bob Dole took a page from the traditional GOP playbook Monday and painted President Clinton as a Democrat who coddles criminals and condones the use of drugs.
But Clinton struck back later in the day with an endorsement from the Fraternal Order of Police, the nation's largest police organization. The FOP, which endorsed George Bush four years ago, praised Clinton for his record on crime and labor issues.
The focus on crime underscored its political importance this year, as opinion polls show it is one of the top concerns of voters.
In a harsh attack staged before a largely student audience at Villanova University, Dole put aside his ambitious tax-cut plan and focused instead on delivering a broad indictment on Clinton's record as a moral leader. Said Dole, ``What we are talking about is the character of our country.''
The Republican nominee has been trying to pin the soft-on-crime label on Clinton since last spring, without much success. Many Republicans argue that Dole can't win in November unless he can wrest the ``values'' issues away from Clinton, and reinforce any qualms about the president's character. They say the best way to close the large gap in opinion polls is to critique Clinton the crime-fighter.
Which explains why, in an eight-minute span Monday, Dole invoked the word ``liberal'' 12 times - and why, in a burst of alliteration that conjured up memories of Spiro Agnew in 1968, Dole declared that ``Americans are tired of being guinea pigs in a discredited liberal living-laboratory of leniency.''
Clinton, he charged, has opened up ``the crime pipeline,'' thanks to his ``wink-and-a-nod policies,'' which he said include liberal judges, hefty cuts in the White House anti-drug office, and cushy federal prisons for inmates.
Referring to Clinton, Dole scoffed, ``He talks like Dirty Harry, but acts like Barney Fife'' - the comically inept deputy sheriff in television's ``Andy Griffith Show.'' (Later in the day, a Clinton spokesman said Dole had stolen the line; in 1992, Clinton used it against George Bush.)
Dole rattled off several crime-fighting ideas, most of which he first floated last spring: more conservative federal judges; longer prison terms; tougher penalties for criminals who use guns; denial of guns to anyone previously convicted of a serious crime.
The ``law and order'' issue is not the exclusive property of the GOP anymore. Clinton, particularly in the past several years, has assiduously courted the police, as well as crime-fighting groups at the community level.
In Cincinnati, Clinton beamed as the 270,000-member Fraternal Order of Police publicly endorsed his bid for re-election in the same city where it endorsed Bush in 1992.
``You have been with us the last four years, and we intend to be with you the next four years,'' FOP President Gilbert Gallegos said to applause.
With rows of uniformed police behind him, Clinton told the enthusiastic crowd of several thousand that he would fight to ban cop-killer bullets and also called for tougher measures aimed at breaking violent teen gangs.
The FOP's board voted 20-10 Friday to endorse Clinton. Ten FOP leaders had interviewed Clinton at the White House the previous Monday. Dole had declined to meet with them, Gallegos said.
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. President Clinton puts his arms out to supportersby CNBbefore a rally in Cincinnati on Monday. The 270,000-member Fraternal
Order of Police publicly endorsed his bid for re-election. KEYWORDS: POLITICS PRESIDENT