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GOP hopefuls throw fire in pre-N.H. debate

Looking to revive his troubled campaign, multimillionaire publisher Steve Forbes said he had made a mistake airing negative ads. Yet in the next breath he labeled Dole a tax-raiser and raised ethical questions about the financial dealings of former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander.

Firing back, Alexander demanded that Forbes release his tax returns. "That is a diversion," Forbes said, refusing to comply.

Campaign tactics also were a hot topic, beginning at the outset when Buchanan and Alexander lashed out at Dole for launching ads critical of their views. Later, when Forbes was lamenting his negative ad barrage, Dole joked that he knew the reason: "too much money."

While they sparred over the tone and tactics of the campaign, the candidates were in broad agreement over why a Republican president would be better than a second Clinton term: the budget would be balanced, taxes cut and reformed, more power shifted to state and local governments.

With New Hampshire's primary looming Tuesday, Dole and Buchanan are in a tight race for first place, and some new polls suggest Alexander's third-place showing in Iowa last week has him inching up. Forbes has fallen in recent days from challenging to first to fighting for third, and hoped the debate would halt his slide.

There was a spat over negative tactics at the outset, and them a period of calm as the candidates said replacing President Clinton was critical to enacting a conservative GOP agenda. But when the subject turned to the economy and trade, Buchanan and Dole had several short but pointed exchanges.

"Pat is off on this isolationist kick," Dole said at one point. At another, he said "Pat has gotten carried away tonight" and turned to his rival and said, "Had a bad day?" Earlier yesterday, Buchanan's campaign chairman took a leave of absence because of a report linking him to white supremist and militia groups.

Returning fire, Buchanan said Dole had supported tax increases, a point raised later by Forbes, too.

In the trade fight, Dole got plenty of help. Alexander, Forbes, and Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar warned Buchanan's protectionist views would kill many more jobs than they saved. The last time such views were popular, "We got a Great Depression."

Forbes said President Clinton was ill-equipped to revive the economy, which he said was burdened by a corrupt tax code. "This recovery is the slowest in the last 50 years," Forbes said. "It's sluggish. It's nothing to brag about. We're like a patient with walking pneumonia. We're out of bed but we're not well."

Antiabortion candidate Alan Keyes, however, said Republicans were short-sighted to focus on economic statistics, blaming America's angst on the decline of the two-parent family. Republicans, he said, need to promote "the beating heart of our moral discipline and our moral responsibility, two things Bill Clinton seems to know nothing about."

Buchanan said his rivals were blind to the real cause of economic anxiety. "When you cut trade deals that force Americans to compete with people making $1 an hour ... wages are going to go down," Buchanan said.

But Dole said Buchanan's protectionist trade views would kill more jobs that they would save. As Buchanan rolled his eyes and shook his head, Dole said of Buchanan's trade views, "he'd build a wall around the United states."

Buchanan talked tough on illegal immigration, followed by several of his opponents.

Just hours after Dole launched a TV ad labeling Alexander a liberal on taxes, spending and crime, the former Tennessee governor opened the 90-minute, nationally televised debate by confronting the wobbly front-runner.

"Senator Dole, you are better than your negative ads," Alexander said. "Why don't you pull them?"

Dole followed, promising in his opening statement that if elected he would pass tax cuts, welfare reform a balanced budget and bring "moral leadership to the White House." Responding to Alexander, Dole recalled that for all his complaining, it was Alexander who launched the first negative ad of the campaign, months ago against California Gov. Pete Wilson, who has since quit the race.

A few moments later, Buchanan criticized a Dole campaign ad that calls Buchanan "extreme." Buchanan turned to Dole and asked "If I'm extremist, why are you pirating my ideas and parroting my rhetoric?"

These exchanges, and the negative advertising, brought criticism from two long shots in the race, Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar and California Rep. Robert Dornan.

"No Republican should speak ill of another Republican," Dornan said. He praised Dole for speaking policy after one contentious exchange.

Lugar said the bitter campaign would damage GOP chances against President Clinton, regardless of who emerged as the nominee.

When the candidates were asked to defend their advertising, Dole said he was under a negative assault from Forbes more than three months before responding. "We've got a right to defend ourselves," he said. Then, trying to lighten things up, Dole jokingly complained that Forbes was using an unflattering picture in his ads and turned to his rival and passed him a new photograph.

Dornan was the middle-man in that exchange and then took his cue, holding up a photograph of him holding one of his grandchildren.

Buchanan, the surprise of the race after a win in Louisiana's caucuses and a close second to Dole in Iowa, promised voters a president who aggressively opposes abortion and takes on "big transnational corporations" that are sending American jobs overseas.

"It is catching fire," he said of his campaign.

Alexander did come to Dole's defense at one point, saying Clinton, not Republican congressional leaders, was to blame for lack of progress on the 1994 Republican "Contract with America.

"What the Republican Congress needs is an agenda-setting Republican president," Alexander said,.

Forbes concurred on that point, but said his flat tax plan was superior to the tax cuts advocated by congressional Republicans. He also said Republicans weren't doing enough to put control over schools back in parents' hands. And he warned at the outset that voters shouldn't believe the politicians sharing the WMUR-TV studio with him.

"Before you decide who to believe in, you have to decide who to believe," said Forbes, hoping the debate would halt his steady slide in New Hampshire polls that now show Dole and Buchanan fighting for the lead, and Alexander inching up.

Coming off a weak win in Iowa, Dole's goal was to be upbeat and presidential, blunting criticism that he would be no match in a fall debate with President Clinton. But while he wasn't looking to go on the attack in the debate, Dole launched a new ad designed to confront Alexander.

"Liberal on taxes. Liberal on spending. Liberal on crime," the Dole ad says after citing actions Alexander took as Tennessee governor. "Lamar Alexander: not what he pretends to be."

The debate could be the last time the GOP's longer shots get any major exposure. Lugar, Keyes, Dornan and Illinois businessman Morry Taylor were in this group.

Dornan plans to call it quits after New Hampshire, and Taylor might, too. Keyes and Lugar have vowed to press on, but there are no commitments to future debates so they may have few opportunities to share the spotlight.