REVIVING SPECTER OF WATERGATE : DOLE LIKENS CLINTON'S PRESIDENCY TO NIXON'S.Byline: Steven Thomma and Jodi Enda Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire Bob Dole suggested Friday that President Clinton is awash Awash (ä`wäsh), river, E Ethiopia, rising near Addis Ababa and flowing c.500 mi (800 km) to a swampy lake near the Djibouti border. The Awash Valley is important agriculturally and has hydroelectric plants. in scandals similar to those that toppled President Nixon a generation ago. ``This president came of age in the political campaign of George McGovern George Stanley McGovern, (born July 19, 1922) is a former United States Representative, Senator, and Democratic presidential nominee. McGovern lost the 1972 presidential election in a landslide to incumbent Richard Nixon. ,'' Dole said, referring to Clinton's role as the Texas manager of McGovern's presidential campaign in 1972, the year the Watergate scandal Watergate scandal (1972–74) Political scandal involving illegal activities by Pres. Richard Nixon's administration. In June 1972 five burglars were arrested after breaking into the Democratic Party's national headquarters at the Watergate Hotel complex in Washington, started. ``He did not absorb any of the lessons of that time. He didn't learn a thing from this national nightmare that we call Watergate.'' Later, during a campaign stop in Denver, Dole elaborated, referring to controversies within the Clinton White House: ``Filegate, Travelgate. . . . We've had so many gates, I think it's time It's Time was a successful political campaign run by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) under Gough Whitlam at the 1972 election in Australia. Campaigning on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative (Liberal Party of Australia) government, Labor put forward a to show him the front door.'' Dole's assault on Clinton's ethics triggered a Democratic response that reminded voters of the Republican candidate's own, loose connection to Watergate. For a good part of 1972, Dole, then a senator, was chairman of the Republican National Committee, a role that found him in frequent defense of Nixon. ``Clearly, when it comes to learning lessons from Watergate, Bob Dole is the best teacher,'' said Clinton campaign spokesman Joe Lockhart. Nixon administration documents released by the National Archives National Archives, official depository for records of the U.S. federal government, established in 1934 by an act of Congress. Although displeasure concerning the method of keeping national records was voiced in Congress as early as 1810, the United States continued on Thursday ``make one thing clear,'' Lockhart said in a prepared statement. ``Bob Dole has made a career out of negative politics and choosing insults over ideas.'' Lockhart cited a memo written in February 1970 by Nixon aide Pat Buchanan  This article may be too long.Please discuss this issue on the talk page and help summarize or split the content into subarticles of an article series. . Dole, the memo says, recommended in a meeting with Nixon that Republicans ``initiate politically inspired investigations of past misdoings by the Democratic Administration; also, investigate those areas the (Nixon) Administration wants investigated.'' Buchanan said that ``RN,'' the initials for Nixon, backed the idea. Not surprisingly, both campaigns offered different takes on whether Dole's attacks, which have been escalating every day since he began his combative com·bat·ive adj. Eager or disposed to fight; belligerent. See Synonyms at argumentative. com·bat  ive·ly adv. approach, were helping him eat away at Clinton's
double-digit lead in the polls.
Dole's campaign manager, Scott Reed, said he expected a new round of polling this weekend to show the attacks were helping. ``I've got a gut feeling gut feeling Intuition, visceral sensation that it's going to pay off,'' Reed said. Lockhart countered that the attacks and two presidential debates ``changed nothing.'' Clinton campaign strategists met Friday and were to meet again today to map out a plan for the remaining days of the race. Clinton is scheduled to make a swing through New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , New Jersey, Michigan, Ohio and Florida during the first half of next week, in part to help Democratic congressional candidates. Dole is heading to New Hampshire New Hampshire, one of the New England states of the NE United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts (S), Vermont, with the Connecticut R. forming the boundary (W), the Canadian province of Quebec (NW), and Maine and a short strip of the Atlantic Ocean (E). on Sunday and to Michigan on Monday and Tuesday. In a cross-country swing Friday that took him from Albuquerque to Denver to Wichita, in his home state of Kansas, Dole repeated his litany of charges made throughout the week: that Clinton abused his office by securing private FBI files on Republicans, that he used a fund-raising event at a Buddhist temple to ``launder'' campaign contributions from unidentified donors, that he has sold access and influence to Indonesian business executives for contributions. ``This is really unbelievable,'' Dole said. ``Every day we have a new scandal involving foreign corruption. . . . Our elections are not for sale to some foreign interest. . . . We don't want these illegal contributions coming into America and distorting the process.'' Lockhart responded: ``If Bob Dole wants to talk about campaign money laundering The process of taking the proceeds of criminal activity and making them appear legal. Laundering allows criminals to transform illegally obtained gain into seemingly legitimate funds. , he should check in with his own campaign fund-raisers.'' The statement added that federal officials were investigating three fund-raising incidents in the Dole campaign, and said that a former Dole fund-raiser, Simon Fireman, has agreed to pay a $6 million fine for raising illegal contributions. ``When it comes to illegal campaign contributions,'' Lockhart said, playing off Dole's words, the GOP campaign ``is a full-service Laundromat.'' CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole assailedPresident Clinton's term on a campaign stop Friday in Albuquerque, N.M. Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. |
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