DATE: Sunday, September 7, 1997             TAG: 9709070097

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:   52 lines

RALPH REED TELLS CLIENTS TO ADDRESS ISSUES, AVOID ATTACKS LINKED TO VALUES

Ralph Reed, the former Christian Coalition leader now hiring himself out as a political consultant, has a message for his fellow social conservatives: Watch your language around Mickey Mouse.

In a strategy memo circulated to Republican leaders and new clients, Reed warns that GOP officials look mean when they accuse others of ``allegedly having the wrong values.''

``This is particularly true of popular fictional characters, whether Murphy Brown or Mickey Mouse,'' he wrote in the seven-page document.

As vice president, Dan Quayle charged that the TV character Murphy Brown was glamorizing illegitimacy and undermining values by having a child out of wedlock.

The Mickey Mouse line is a reference to a boycott of Disney products by the Southern Baptist Convention, which objected to some Disney programs and company policies, including health benefits for same-sex partners of its employees.

Reed, who just opened his Atlanta political consulting firm, says he supported the Disney boycott and Quayle's knock on Hollywood. Still, his memo warns Republicans that political rhetoric about values should uplift, not denigrate.

``Many voters are turned off when a discussion of values curdles into a personal attack,'' Reed said. ``Avoid this at all costs.''

Though he said the campaign fund-raising scandal could tar President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, Reed urges Republicans to be careful about kicking Democrats when they're down.

``Vitriolic calls for a special prosecutor only make (Republicans) look mean and partisan,'' he wrote. Congressional hearings on the Democratic fund-raising affair ``have been wholly disappointing'' so Republicans can't count on the scandal sweeping them to election victories, Reed said.

Instead, he recommends that Republicans emphasize issues like education, welfare and abortion, while drawing contrasts with Clinton. Tax cuts ``lack the same bite in a strong economy,'' he said, echoing recent statements by other social conservatives.

Underscoring a widening split between congressional Republicans and its conservative base, Reed says ``capitulations to Clinton'' and the ``lack of a coherent Republican agenda'' are cause for alarm heading into the 1998 elections.

He said the ``maudlin coup attempt'' against House Speaker Newt Gingrich also hurt the GOP. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Ralph Reed counsels GOP officials in a memo that political rhetoric

about values should uplift, not denigrate.

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