Rival in Texas, Bush Decides to Joust From Afar

MILWAUKEE — If Michael S. Dukakis was sitting tall in the campaign saddle as he rode into Texas on Friday, Vice President George Bush was doing his best to knock him off the horse.

So it was that Bush took his first shots of the campaign for the Lone Star State from an unlikely outpost: Milwaukee, Wis.

What started as an appeal to ethnic voters at an Italian-American festival switched focus as Bush--mindful that Dukakis had picked the vice president’s adopted home state of Texas for his first post-nomination stop--derided the Massachusetts governor as “not in accord . . . with the mainstream of Texas.”

“Gun control--I don’t think Texans want federal gun control. Big difference there,” Bush told reporters in a reference to Dukakis’ support for curbs on handguns.

‘Much More Appeal’

“Texans feel that some crimes are so heinous, so outrageous, so brutal that capital punishment is called for, and the governor--out of conscience--opposes capital punishment . . . I think I’ll have much more appeal (in Texas).”

In answer to reporters’ questions, Bush also defended his vice presidential tenure and the “Reagan era” that Dukakis declared over in his Thursday night speech accepting the Democratic nomination.

“If anyone tells you that the American dream belongs to the privileged few and not to all of us, you tell them that the Reagan era is over,” Dukakis told the Democratic delegates in Atlanta.

Bush bristled at the remark:

“I hope not,” he said. “I hope the renewed sense of pride in this country continues . . .. “I hope that our record of getting an arms control agreement for the first time . . . will continue.”

The vice president also shrugged off criticism implicit in Dukakis’ speech when the Democratic nominee said that if Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen is elected as his vice president, he “won’t sit silently by” at the mention of a “cockamamie idea that we should trade arms to the Ayatollah for hostages.”

The reference was a jab at Bush, who has said he had reservations about secret sale of U.S. arms to Iran, but did not openly oppose them. In his retort Friday, Bush played on the policy differences between the conservative Bentsen and the more liberal Dukakis.

“If he is suggesting that Bentsen can change his (Dukakis’) views on gun control, that’s good,” Bush said. “If he’s suggesting that he (Bentsen) can convince Gov. Dukakis to never have a furlough program that’ll furlough a man like Willie Horton again, never again, that would be good.”

The vice president was referring to a celebrated Massachusetts case in which Horton, a convicted murderer, was allowed out of jail under a furlough program Dukakis supported. Horton fled to Maryland, where he stabbed a man and repeatedly raped his wife.

Later, Bush called Dukakis’ speech “outstanding,” but criticized it for failing to be more definitive on foreign policy and defense issues.

Ethnic Appeal

“It was devoid of how we offer the hope of freedom and democracy for others,” Bush said. “It was devoid about keeping our country strong.”

For good measure, Bush also made a direct appeal to the ethnic Americans as he stood surrounded by red-and-green-clad volunteers at Milwaukee’s Festa Italiana festival.

“Ethnic pride, as I think of it, really rejoices, celebrates not only the diversity of America, but the good things about America,” the vice president said.

Bush toured an exhibit of religious icons and immigrant memorabilia and donned a gift jacket and cap--for which he thanked his hosts effusively.

Later, Bush traveled to Point Pleasant, N.J., where he posed in the rain before reporters, held up a bag of used medical syringes that have washed up on nearby beaches and endorsed legislation that would ban ocean dumping.

Asked for specifics, such as how much waste was dumped into the ocean, Bush replied: “Too much . . . I don’t know how much.”

Asked how the waste would otherwise be disposed of, he said: “I’ll mail it to you. I can’t give you the details.”

Bush, who said he came to New Jersey to learn about the recent closures of contaminated beaches, was met there by demonstrators mimicking a line from Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s speech to the Democratic convention:

“Where was George?” they shouted.