THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 8, 1996 TAG: 9606080411
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF & WIRE REPORT
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 66 lines
Bob Dole won conservative praise Friday for pledging to keep the Republican platform strongly anti-abortion, and his call for tolerance of different views on the issue won enough support from GOP moderates to suggest Dole would escape a divisive convention fight.
Dole's statement brought a flood of reaction from politicians and activists on both sides of the issue, including praise from such disparate figures as President Clinton and Pat Buchanan, Dole's conservative GOP primary challenger.
``Anything that restores civility in this debate is a positive thing and I applaud him for it,'' Clinton told reporters.
But, eager not to lose his giant lead among moderate women who support abortion rights, Clinton pointedly noted: ``He is in favor of a constitutional amendment to ban abortions and I am not. There is a real difference there that I don't think can be papered over.''
Of more concern to the Dole camp, however, was reaction from Republicans. And by late Friday, the consensus was that Dole had taken a giant stride toward avoiding a floor battle over abortion policy at the August Republican National Convention.
Buchanan called Dole's statement ``welcome news for the cause of life.'' Several governors who support abortion rights also rallied to Dole's side, and the chairman of the party platform committee said he thought the Kansas senator had found a formula that would satisfy all factions in the party.
Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, founder of the Chesapeake-based Christian Coalition, also offered support for Dole's position.
``I don't think Bob Dole did anything except say what's already there. In the Republican Party, there are people who are pro-choice, and there are people who are pro-life. And he acknowledged the existence of the state of affairs as it exists,'' said Robertson, whose Christian Broadcasting Network is based in Virginia Beach.
Avoiding a convention battle is something Dole advisers consider critical to maintaining enthusiastic support among the GOP's conservative base without alienating suburban swing voters who tend to favor abortion rights.
``We don't want the convention dominated by the media talking about one issue,'' Dole said Friday as he campaigned in Tennessee. ``We've got a lot of things we agree on.''
There was some initial concern among anti-abortion leaders that Dole wanted the ``declaration of tolerance'' added to the abortion plank. But after Dole aides assured them that any ``big tent'' language would go into the platform preamble, most embraced his statement.
``The tolerance language, if it's at the preamble of the entire platform, I think it's a very good thing,'' Robertson said on ``Newswatch Today,'' which airs on CBN. ``That means it's a big tent, and it's a big enough party to accommodate differing points of view. That's a very reasonable statement.''
Buchanan suggested preamble language that would not single out abortion: ``We respect and welcome in our ranks those who may disagree with one or several of the planks of this platform - and we openly welcome them in the cause of a Republican victory in 1996.''
While eager not to offend Dole, however, several abortion-rights supporters said the statement did not go far enough.
California Gov. Pete Wilson and Massachusetts Gov. William Weld vowed to press ahead with efforts to rewrite the platform. Weld said it should either acknowledge both points of view on the issue or be silent on abortion.
``I don't think a throwaway line - `We understand some people disagree with this' - would be sufficient,'' Weld said.
KEYWORDS: ABORTION by CNB