DOLE BLISTERS CLINTON OVER FBI FILES.

Byline: Curt Anderson Associated Press 

Sen. Bob Dole delivered a scathing attack Saturday on the Clinton administration over disclosures that a White House aide obtained secret FBI background records on 341 people, including many top Republicans.

``I think it smells to high heaven,'' Dole told reporters after calling on President Clinton in a speech to apologize.

``I remember Watergate,'' said Dole, who was Republican Party chairman when that scandal broke in the early 1970s. ``All the things that happened in Watergate because of these kind of tricks, we don't want to repeat it.''

At the White House, counsel Mark Fabiani dismissed Dole's comments as ``wild political charges'' and Clinton-Gore deputy campaign manager Ann Lewis brushed off the call for an apology.

``The real news is that once again Sen. Dole has nothing positive to say about his own record or his vision for America,'' Lewis said.

After his weekly radio address, but before Dole spoke, Clinton was asked if he was satisfied with the explanations of how the files came to be accumulated. Nodding affirmatively he replied, ``Based on what I know.''

Dole, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, described the White House aide's use of the FBI files as a ``dirt-digging expedition'' into former Bush administration officials such as James Baker, the former secretary of state; former Bush Chief of Staff Kenneth Duberstein and Tony Blankley, now House Speaker Newt Gingrich's press secretary.

``The group reads like a Clinton enemies list,'' Dole told about 2,000 people at a GOP unity rally, and some of the people whose files were pulled said they were upset that their privacy had been invaded.

At the rally, Dole delivered a broad indictment against what he said was a series of ethical lapses on the part of the Clinton administration, including ongoing probes into the Whitewater land deal and the White House travel office.

Dole jabbed at the White House explanation that getting the FBI files was an ``innocent mistake'' and was actually part of a routine effort to update files on people with White House access.

``For an administration that was supposed to be the most ethical in history, the Clinton White House sure makes a lot of innocent mistakes,'' Dole said. ``As the disclosures and resignations and convictions mount, the facts paint a very different picture.''

Dole said the FBI file incident could ``raise concerns'' that the presidential contest could become a ``vicious negative campaign'' that will further heighten voter cynicism in politics and government.

Addressing the president directly, Dole said: ``The American people don't want that kind of a campaign, Mr. President. We want to talk about the issues. We want to talk about America.''

White House officials said Friday that the records were obtained by an Army aide, identified as Anthony Marceca of the Army Criminal Investigation division, in 1993 and early 1994. But Marceca was working off an outdated Bush administration list of people who still were listed by the Secret Service as having access to the White House.

When Marceca left his White House assignment, he had worked through the letter G on the list.

That indicates the file-gathering was an innocent mistake, said Lewis, who noted that there is no evidence the information was ever used or that the files were even read.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Speaking to supporters Saturday in Marietta, Ga., Se n. Bob Dole rakes the White House over the disclosure of an aide's secret-file gathering.

Associated Press