DOLE STRIKES BACK IN GOP RESPONSE.

Byline: Larry Margasak Associated Press 

Bob Dole, responding for Republicans and seizing the chance to help his political prospects, accused President Clinton on Tuesday night of "careening dangerously off course" in welfare, education, Medicare and taxes.

"I do believe we have reached a defining moment," Dole said from his office in a hard-hitting Republican response to Clinton's State of the Union address.

Speaking as Senate majority leader but outlining his own presidential themes, the front-running GOP contender assailed Clinton as "the chief obstacle to a balanced budget" and "almost the last public defender of a discredited status quo."

Concentrating on the hot-button presidential issues, Dole seized the moment to describe starkly different philosophies - his own vs. Clinton's, the Republicans' vs. the Democrats'.

Hoping that he'll be making future State of the Union speeches instead of responding to them, the Kansan vowed that Republicans would send Clinton another balanced budget bill. Clinton vetoed the last one, and talks between Republican leaders and the president failed to produce a compromise.

The president offered "only a fantasy" to replace the GOP bill, Dole said, and promised to pepper the White House with "bill after bill, returning power and programs to the states and to the people. We will challenge President Clinton again and again to walk the talk he talks so well."

Dole said the president has chosen to defend:

A welfare system that is "a daily assault on the values of self-reliance and family."

An education establishment "run by liberals whose goal is to operate every school in America by remote control from Washington."

The status quo in Medicare, "a program in urgent need of rescue."

A tax burden "that has pushed countless families into their own personal recessions."

"It's as though our government, our institutions and our culture have been hijacked by liberals and are careening dangerously off course," said Dole, vowing that Republicans "know the way back."

The GOP, he pledged, will rein in government, reduce the tax burden, put parents in charge of schools, untie the hands of the police and restore justice to the courts.

Dole said at times election-year debates will seem like arguments over "a maze of conflicting numbers, assertions and high-sounding words. But what we're really arguing about are the values that will shape our nation, our government, and the future of that child sleeping down the hall."

Earlier, in remarks before delivering his formal response, Dole said his message was that "the best days are still ahead of us" but that Republicans remained "concerned about America and the direction of America."

"We have different ways to achieve the goals, different values, different priorities," he said.

Dole's campaign portrayed the response as a chance for Americans to contrast the senator and Clinton. Dole said he saw Clinton's speech as "a signal that the race is on."

The Republicans had proposed the novel approach of delivering their response today, taking a day to think about Clinton's remarks. The idea was abandoned when several networks turned them down for coverage.

Nelson Warfield, spokesman for Dole's presidential campaign, said there was "a burden and an advantage" in Dole's dual role as a candidate and the majority leader. "We've had to spend a lot of time off the campaign trail. Dole has put his job in the Senate as the first priority. He has the burden of leadership and this is part of that job."

Warfield added that Dole could benefit because Americans "get to see Bob Dole's vision of America."

Dole is the leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, and two of his Senate colleagues, Sens. Phil Gramm of Texas and Dick Lugar of Indiana are among his rivals.

Gramm's spokesman, Gary Koops, said his boss was not concerned with Dole's free television time.

"We're on the air right now with television advertising, showing how much Bob Dole and Bill Clinton agree on the issues," he said, contending Gramm's views generate their own news regardless of Dole's televised speech.

CAPTION(S):

(color) Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole responds to the address. Associated Press