-Caveat Lector- http://www.washtimes.com/news/news2.html Published in Washington, D.C. 5am -- July 9, 1999 www.washtimes.com Clinton says Bush is a copy of him ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- By Andrew Cain THE WASHINGTON TIMES ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- ANAHEIM, Calif. resident Clinton accused Texas Gov. George W. Bush Thursday of lifting his trademark "compassionate conservatism" from the president's New Democrat philosophy. "The rhetoric of compassionate conservatism -- half those speeches sound like I gave them in '92," Mr. Clinton said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. Levying his harshest criticism of Mr. Bush to date, Mr. Clinton called the Republican front-runner's message "very flattering in a way" because it "replicates the rhetoric" of Clinton themes. The president's remarks recall similar charges made by Republicans that Mr. Clinton stole their ideas and repackaged them as his own. "Al Gore and Bill Clinton have consistently wrapped liberal philosophies with conservative rhetoric," said Michael Collins, spokesman for the Republican National Committee. "But talk is cheap." The policies, he said, are what is really at stake. "In Al Gore's case, policies that would tell us what kind of job we can have, what kind of house we can live in, how big our back yard can be, what kind of car we can have in the garage and how many miles we -- Continued from Front Page -- can drive it." He said: "Under Al Gore, some things are mandatory, but everything else will be illegal. That's what being a New Democrat is all about. That's neither compassionate, nor conservative, nor smart." Mr. Clinton said the Texas governor "seems to have discarded some of the harsher aspects of the Republican revolution of the last five years," particularly on immigration. He said Mr. Bush appears to be blurring his positions on affirmative action and abortion. Mr. Clinton called the governor's opposition to hate-crimes legislation, the patients' bill of rights and new gun control "downright hostile" to the centrist, "Third Way" position. Mr. Clinton said the key question is whether Mr. Bush's "compassionate conservatism" is an umbrella under which Republicans in Congress, "the architects of the revolution in 1995, the Contract on America, the heirs of Newt Gingrich" can be "protected from the rainstorm of public opinion until they get to where they can do what they want." The president's remarks set off a round of bipartisan credit-claiming, with both the president's men and Bush backers arguing that their man was compassionate and conservative first. At stake is California, crucial to Democratic hopes next year. Bush backers note the vice president's recent speaking in Spanish to address Hispanic voters, which Mr. Bush had done first. They said Mr. Gore's call for public funding of church initiatives to help the poor was a response to Mr. Bush's proposal to ease government restrictions on faith-based groups aimed at the poor. Mr. Bush's spokesman David Beckwith rejected the president's suggestion that the Texas governor is recycling centrist positions espoused by Mr. Clinton. "Governor Bush's approach is new, both in terms of leadership and philosophy," Mr. Beckwith said. "He's spoken of a fresh start for the country after a season of cynicism. There's a fundamental difference in philosophy between Mr. Bush and the administration. Clinton-Gore believes in a large bureaucracy that dictates solutions from Washington. Governor Bush believes in people and solutions that are found in local communities." The Texas governor capped a recent fund-raising swing through California with the announcement that he had raised a record-shattering $36 million through the first two quarters of the year --nearly double Mr. Gore's total. Mr. Bush said the previous two Republican presidential nominees -- his father in 1992 and Bob Dole in 1996 -- essentially wrote off California but he expects to win the state. California, with 54 electoral votes, has brought Mr. Gore to California more than 50 times during Mr. Clinton's presidency. Mr. Clinton, noting that Vice President George Bush initially lagged in national polls in 1988, said Mr. Gore's poll numbers will improve. "I think there's a constant desire for change," Mr. Clinton said. "But I think what you'll see by next year is that the vice president will be the candidate of change." Earlier this summer, Mr. Clinton angered the vice president by remarking that he was concerned about the stumbling start of Mr. Gore's campaign. The vice president then pointedly distanced himself from the president, announcing his candidacy for president June 16 with a vow to bring "my own values of faith and family to the presidency." Mr. Clinton Thursday wrapped up a four-day tour of some of America's poorest communities in the Watts precincts of south Los Angeles. Accompanied by retired basketball star Magic Johnson, he visited a training center in a high school named for Alain Leroy Locke, the first black Rhodes scholar. In Anaheim, Mr. Clinton announced an $8 million plan to create "information technology academies" in urban and rural schools. The academies, also called "schools within schools," are intended to give poor students computer training. Mr. Clinton wants Congress to approve a package of tax credits and loan guarantees meant to spur investment in communities with intractable poverty. He called his trip "a trade mission to America," intended to boost investment in communities that have missed the nation's economic boom, from Appalachia to East St. Louis, from the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota to Watts. The president will remain in Southern California through Saturday, when he will attend the contest between the United States and China in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena for the Women's World Cup, emblematic of soccer supremacy. Mr. Clinton said that he would make another tour of poor communities, beginning in Newark, N.J. He said he would challenge the owners of professional sports franchises to follow the example of the owners of the New Jersey Nets basketball team, who invest 35 percent of the team's profits in projects there. White House correspondent Bill Sammon contributed to this report. http://www.washtimes.com/news/news2.html ------------------------------------------------- Patrick J. Buchanan http://www.gopatgo.org/ Tax Plan: http://www.gopatgo.org/000-c-taxes.html Immigration: http://www.gopatgo.org/000-c-immigration.html ------------------------------- "I will use the 'Bully Pulpit' to fight the Culture of Death and appoint only pro-life judges to the Supreme Court." --- Pat Buchanan ------------------------------ Bard Visit me at: The Center for Exposing Corruption in the Federal Government http://www.xld.com/public/center/center.htm Federal Government defined: ....a benefit/subsidy protection racket! DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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