Bush Focusing on Deficit, Ethics in Illinois Campaign

CHICAGO — Vice President George Bush, unveiling what he called a “broader vision” as he zeroes in on the Republican nomination, vowed Thursday to set up a budget deficit summit with Congress on the first day of his presidency and to develop a code of ethics to rule government officials.

His confidence mounting in the wake of a boggling Super Tuesday victory, the vice president sounded themes of compassion and national unity and touched as well on the specifics that he hopes will give him not only the nomination but the general election in November.

Underlined in his day of campaigning in Illinois was the importance of this state, where Bush forces hope to crush the flagging candidacy of Kansas Sen. Bob Dole next week.

“It all boils down to these last five days now--who should be the President of the United States?” Bush told several hundred people at a Chicago breakfast.

Bush’s speech accented the major themes that the vice president’s strategists expect him to pound home in the coming months.

In addition to touting his plans for putting a cap on overall spending for four years, Bush announced that he would “on day one” name negotiators to sit down with Congress and pare spending, using his mandate from the voters as leverage.

“We’re going to show Congress and show the spenders and the left and the liberals that we mean it this time--we mean business,” Bush said.

He also referred to his previous pledge not to raise taxes by saying “If we raise taxes to close the deficit, Congress won’t close the deficit. Congress will spend more money and make the deficit worse.”

Under questioning by reporters, Bush defended his negotiation concept and denied that it in any way resembled the National Economic Commission, recently set up and the target of frequent criticism by Bush as a cover for raising taxes.

“I want the electorate to weigh in,” he said. “That gives the President . . . much more power.”

He also insisted that his negotiators could do battle with the deficit, despite his announced intentions not to cut Social Security and to increase some programs such as education and AIDS research.

“You just have to go through it program by program and just hold the line,” he said. “When you add up the proposals I’ve made we’re not talking about tremendous sums of money.”

Criticizes Commission

He criticized the commission, spawned from a suggestion by New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, because it consists largely of representatives named by Congress.

Bush also came under stiff questioning by reporters for his announcement that he would appoint an ethics panel to draft a “new and specific” code of ethics.

“I’m tired of being embarrassed,” the vice president said in his speech. “I’m tired of our children seeing things that should embarrass us all.”

While Bush has brought up, in more general terms, the question of ethics in his speeches, he has steadfastly refused to comment on specific cases that have tarnished the Administration. He declined to do so again Thursday at a mid-day press conference.

“I’m not going to put it in terms of going out to criticize any individual and thus look back,” Bush said. “I am looking forward.”

Code to Cover Lying

But, asked if his code would cover lying to Congress--as Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams has acknowledged doing during the Iran-Contra probe--Bush said: “Certainly, telling the truth should be a part of it.”

Bush’s introduction of a new, more focused and more elegant speech came as he opened an all-or-nothing battle in Illinois. Although victory in the state would not give the vice president enough delegates to ensure the nomination, a strong victory here would sound the death knell for Dole.

When questioned about the Dole campaign’s withdrawal of all its Illinois television ads, Bush’s chief of staff, Craig Fuller, reported that the vice president said: “We’ll go about our business, do our job.” When questioned about Dole later, Bush said: “I don’t know anything about that.”

The vice president flew to Chicago Thursday morning after a day of relaxation following his Tuesday primary sweep. He plans five days of intensive campaigning before the vote.

Bush operatives are mounting a huge campaign in Illinois, banking on momentum from Super Tuesday, piggybacking on the local organizations of prominent Republicans and their own vast resources.

While Dole appears strapped for cash, Bush has enough in his war chest to spend beyond Dole’s limits.

Volunteers Phone Voters

Bush’s state chairman Samuel K. Skinner said Bush volunteers have called 8,000 voters each day to swing votes to the vice president, and will have a 1,200-line telephone bank in operation beginning this weekend.

The intensity of the effort is meant to allay any concerns that, having already grabbed more than 700 of the 1,139 delegates needed for nomination, Bush will let up.

“He wants to do it right,” said Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson, who is Bush’s honorary state chairman. “I don’t think he wants to be in the position--nor do we want him in the position--of seeming to slack off or take Illinois for granted.”

Bush’s other top Illinois figurehead, Rep. Lynn Martin (R-Rockford), emphasized the importance attached to an Illinois victory.

“I’ve got him in a St. Patrick’s Day parade (on Saturday) in Rockford, Ill., which is Swedish,” she said. “Now this has got to be, you know, groping to make sure we cover everything.”

But Thompson and Martin predicted that Bush will not sweep the delegates here as he did in some Super Tuesday states, because several popular officials seeking to be delegates are pledged to other candidates.

Expect Decisive Victory

But both expect a decisive Bush victory in Illinois, where internal polls last week put the vice president 10 to 20 points ahead of Dole.

“I can’t imagine how he wouldn’t be the nominee, just in terms of the numbers, especially with Kemp withdrawing and with Robertson all but conceded,” Thompson said. “It’s a two-man race and I just don’t think the numbers can be there for Dole.”

According to Martin, the sweeping Bush victory on Super Tuesday has boosted the vice president in Illinois. “None of us expected it that big,” she said.

She credited both Bush’s personal popularity in the South and Dole’s televised outburst on the night of the New Hampshire primary that Bush should “stop lying about my record.”

“It was that 20 seconds after the New Hampshire primary,” Martin said. “Bob Dole defeated himself around the nation. That was the campaign.”

Bush made clear Thursday that he does not intend to come face to face with Dole before the Tuesday primary here. He called Dole’s insistence on a Saturday debate a ploy. “There isn’t going to be any debate,” Bush said firmly.