S.F. TOUR TOUGH ON CLINTON : PRESIDENT CHASTISED FOR GAY RIGHTS STANCE.

Byline: John King Associated Press 

President Clinton came west Sunday to rebut Republican criticism of his crime-fighting record but encountered turbulence and protests from Democratic allies for his views on gay marriage and gambling.

A crowd of about 200 gay rights protesters greeted Clinton outside the home of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, where the president attended a $1 million Democratic National Committee fund-raising dinner.

``You have betrayed us, Clinton,'' read one sign in the protest against Clinton's support for legislation allowing states to deny legal recognition of same-sex marriages.

``Clinton is stabbing us in the back again, taking our money, taking our vote,'' said Susan Hester, 45, of San Francisco, who suggested that the president was afraid of the political price of opposing the legislation. ``It'd be nice to have a Democratic president with a backbone.''

At one point, Mayor Willie Brown suggested that Clinton not visit the city so soon after announcing he would sign the Republican-sponsored measure, which is pending in Congress. But Clinton campaigned here nonetheless, visiting the historic Presidio complex to promote the administration's role in converting the former military base into a national park.

``Protest Clinton's Republicanization'' said one flier urging activists to gather at Feinstein's house. In an apparent attempt to avoid major demonstrations, White House emissaries met with gay leaders in the city throughout the weekend.

Police barricades kept protesters across the street from Feinstein's home in the Presidio Heights neighborhood. The crowd was loud but not unruly, and there were no reports of arrests.

No demonstrators were in sight where Clinton spoke briefly - with the Golden Gate Bridge looming in the background - at the Presidio site of a proposed national park. Clinton called for moving forward with the Presidio park conversion and preserving the nation's park system in general, calling it ``a national treasure.''

``We cannot forget that what ought to animate us is a vision of what we want this place to look like 50 years from now,'' he said.

Opening a three-day campaign swing with heavy emphasis on California, Clinton also found himself distracted by the controversy over the administration's obtainment of secret FBI background files on 341 people, many of them prominent Republicans.

Speaking to reporters, Clinton said the files were requested in a ``completely honest bureaucratic snafu'' in 1993 when his new administration was determining who was eligible for White House access. Republicans vowed election-year hearings on what they termed a White House abuse of power.

The goal of the campaign and fund-raising trip was to shore up Clinton's standing in the West, a region important to his big 1992 Electoral College victory despite winning just 43 percent of the popular vote.

Clinton carried California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada four years ago, and political advisers said he now leads Republican Bob Dole in those states.

Stopping first in Nevada, Clinton lamented that while the overall crime rate has fallen during his administration, juvenile crime was on the rise and growing more violent. ``This is a very urgent problem for our country,'' Clinton said.

During a discussion about a Las Vegas program that provides tutoring, counseling and other services to juvenile offenders, Clinton did not directly mention Dole or even Republicans. But he noted the stiff opposition when he tried in 1994 to increase federal funding for prevention programs.

``We simply cannot jail our way out of America's crime problem,'' Clinton said. ``We are simply going to have to invest more money in prevention.''

Accompanying Clinton was Nevada's Democratic governor, Bob Miller, who was described by administration officials as furious that Clinton had decided to support subpoena power for a federal commission to investigate the gambling industry.

Miller has repeatedly told gaming industry executives - including last week after a golf outing with Clinton - that the White House assured him Clinton opposed subpoena power. Roughly half of those attending a $500,000 Democratic National Committee fund-raising luncheon during Clinton's visit were gaming industry officials.

Despite Miller's assertions, the White House said Friday that Clinton believed subpoena power was necessary for a thorough investigation.

Trying to assuage Miller - and limit the political fallout in Nevada - Clinton said he backed limited subpoena power so the commission can determine the impact of gambling on society. But he said the panel should not have unlimited power to investigate individual industry officials or ``be a witch hunt.''

It was Clinton's 24th visit to California as president, evidence enough of the importance the giant state and its 54 electoral votes are to his re-election hopes.

For this trip, the themes were carefully selected to counter a recent visit by Dole, who has pledged not to repeat the 1992 Republican mistake and cede California to Clinton. During his California campaigning, Dole asserted that Clinton was losing the war on crime, in part because the administration was not aggressively policing the border and prosecuting drug smuggling cases.

Begging to differ, Clinton was promoting his initiative to help local police put more cops on the beat. The administration also was releasing a Justice Department report detailing federal crime-fighting efforts along the border.