IDEAS, MUD FLY IN PRESIDENTIAL RACE SCLINTON PROPOSES DRUG TESTS FOR TEEN LICENSES; DOLE CALLS INCUMBENT `AWOL' ON DRUG WAR.

Byline: Steven Thomma Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

Under fire over rising teen-age drug use, President Clinton on Saturday proposed that teens be tested for drugs as a condition for receiving their driver's licenses.

Clinton also announced that the government will issue rules Monday implementing a law that requires states to suspend the license of anyone under the age of 21 who drinks and drives.

``We are already saying to teens if you drink you are not allowed to drive. Now we should say that teens should pass a drug test as a condition of getting a driver's license. Our message should be simple: no drugs or no driver's license,'' Clinton said in his weekly radio address.

Clinton has been criticized repeatedly by Republican challenger Bob Dole over a recent study that says the number of teen-agers admitting they had used illicit drugs jumped from 5.3 percent in 1992 to 10.9 percent in 1995.

The Clinton administration made drug control a low priority early in its first couple of years, cutting the number of employees in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy from 146 to 25. The office was restored to full strength earlier this year, and Clinton has given anti-drug efforts a higher profile with the appointment of drug czar Barry McCaffrey.

Dole spokesman Nelson Warfield responded to Clinton's proposal, saying, ``The policy is right. . . . The timing, however, is suspect.

``After allowing teen drug use to more than double while he has been in the White House, his announcement today just proves that Bill Clinton would test positive for political cynicism. He's guilty of CWI, campaigning while impersonating a moderate.''

Speaking at an afternoon rally in Norfolk, Va., a Navy town, Dole again criticized Clinton's record of enforcing drug laws and used the criticism to make an offhand criticism of Clinton's avoidance of the draft during the Vietnam War.

``He's been AWOL in the war on drugs,'' Dole said. ``He's been AWOL before.''

In his weekly radio address, Clinton said he was instructing McCaffrey and Transportation Secretary Federico Pena to study ways to make teen-age drug testing a condition for getting a driver's license. He gave them 90 days to report back.

It is likely that such a requirement would require legislation in Congress.

Clinton appealed to teen-agers who do not use drugs to support the drug testing proposal as a way of keeping the roads safe and curbing drug abuse.

Dole, meanwhile, campaigned in Kentucky and Virginia, accusing Clinton of letting foreign contributors corrupt the American election.

``These efforts were designed to sidestep American campaign laws,'' the Republican presidential candidate said in a national radio address.

``Huge sums of money were involved, enough to substantially influence an American election. In fact, some of the negative ads you've probably been hearing about me have probably been paid for with some of this foreign money.''

He referred largely to reports of large contributions to the Democratic National Committee from members of a wealthy Indonesian conglomerate.

The DNC on Friday removed finance vice chairman John Huang, who has close ties to the Indonesian-based Lippo Group, from fund-raising duties and asked

the Federal Election Commission to investigate contributions solicited by Huang.

While there is still no evidence that any laws were broken, Dole charged that ``The ethical vacuum at the heart of this administration has been filled by foreign political money.''

He said American elections are unique because even a wealthy person has the same vote as a poor person.

``We cannot allow the political influence of any American to be outweighed by foreign money,'' he said. ``In an American election, the voice of a single American citizen must speak louder than the entire world.''

At an outdoor rally in Somerset, Ky., on the steps of the white-columned county court house, Dole added, ``We're finally getting foreign aid coming to this country - and it's all going to the Democratic National Committee.''

Dole believes his late shift to a broad and continuing attack on the president's ethics and character will finally help him eat away at Clinton's lead.

While presidential candidates usually hope they have ``coattails'' that will help pull along members of their party farther down the ballot, Dole may be hoping for the opposite, that the popularity of senators and other Republicans will help him.

At the end of his rally here, Dole nodded to Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who is running for his third term.

``We're gonna win,'' Dole said. ``Mitch is going to carry me across the finish line.''

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Presidential candidate Bob Dole is introduced at a r ally in Norfolk, Va.

Associated Press