ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, October 28, 1996 TAG: 9610280171
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Calling Bob Dole a hero, Jack Kemp expressed disappointment Sunday that fellow Republicans appear to be abandoning their party's presidential nominee in his ``moment of need'' to focus on Congress instead.
With Election Day looming and Dole still well behind President Clinton in the polls, Kemp made another plea to Reform Party candidate Ross Perot, beseeching Perot to drop out and throw his support to Dole.
``Ross, I beg you. You should be supporting the one man who can bring about these reforms in America,'' he said on ``Face the Nation'' on CBS.
Perot, who last week rebuffed a direct endorsement overture from the Dole campaign, stressed again Sunday that he is in the race to stay.
``I am urging them [the American people] to vote for us, not for anybody else,'' the Texan said on NBC's ``Meet the Press.''
Perot spent nearly his entire interview criticizing the Clinton administration for what he called ethical lapses. While not endorsing Dole, he said Americans would prefer Dole as the nation's military leader.
``Certainly Senator Dole understands combat,'' Perot said of the World War II veteran. ``The other candidate has no experience in military or in combat''
The Dole campaign cast Perot's remarks in the best light. ``I think he's being very positive in telling the American people they have a choice and I'm the better choice,'' Dole said.
In California, Dole used Perot's comments to attack Clinton.
``It's the animal house, it's no longer the White House. I can't believe any thinking American - except the real partisans - want four more years of this,'' Dole said near Sacramento.
``Ross Perot suggests, indirectly, it may not be four more years. Maybe it's going to be so serious next year, somebody might be in real trouble. I didn't say that, Ross Perot did - but I thought about it,'' Dole said.
Dole has been telling Perot supporters to pick him and not ``waste your vote'' because the Reform Party candidate ``doesn't have a chance.''
In an all-out bid for California's 54 electoral votes - one-fifth of the 270 needed to win the election - Dole is spending nearly four days there and planned to return for an election-eve blitz, according to his campaign. Polls show Dole from 8 to 20 points behind Clinton in California, a state thought necessary for Dole to win.
``We're going to win the Golden State jackpot on Nov. 5, because we're going to talk about trust and leadership and ethics and things you can count on in a Dole administration that are sorely lacking now,'' Dole said Sunday.
Clinton, meanwhile, began a seven-state campaign swing after a Rose Garden ceremony to promote a $30million spending increase for research into the genetic basis of breast cancer, the disease that killed his mother.
``Nothing is more devastating to a family's strength than when someone is diagnosed with a life-threatening disease like cancer. I know about this from my own family's experience,'' he said.
Clinton planned to emphasize welfare, deficit-reduction and education at stops in Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri, Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania before returning to the White House on Tuesday.
Kemp's displeasure with other Republicans came amid indications that some GOP leaders have written off Dole's chances of catching Clinton and are shifting attention to protecting the Republican majority in Congress.
Kemp called it disheartening ``to hear that some Republicans would run away at this moment of need for a man who has been a hero his whole career.''
GOP leaders appearing on Sunday news programs insisted that Dole could win. Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour, on ``Fox News Sunday,'' compared Dole to New York Yankees manager Joe Torre, who brought his team from two losses back to win the World Series on Saturday.
Donald Rumsfield, Dole's national campaign manager, said on CNN's ``Late Edition'' that Dole is narrowing the gap in the polls and ``the race will end up being a few points either way.''
Perot, who garnered 19 percent of the vote in 1992, is given only single-digit support in major polls this year, but much of that comes from potential Republican voters. Rumsfield said Dole could win close races in such states as Michigan and Ohio if he got the Perot vote.
Republicans continued their attacks on Clinton's ethics record, repeating their criticisms of Whitewater, White House access to FBI files on Republicans and Democratic acceptance of large campaign contributions from foreign nationals. They warned that possible court actions against the Clintons in a second term could spark a national crisis.
But White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta, on CNN, discounted GOP attempts to find scandal:
``We've gone through four years of these allegations and yet nothing has come of that.''
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICS PRESIDENTby CNB