SAN FRANCISCO - An angry Ross Perot yesterday called his exclusion from the upcoming presidential debates "a major setback ... for democracy and the rights of voters," and sarcastically suggested that America ask "Bosnia and Haiti to send poll-watchers to help us clean up the election process."
Reacting to Tuesday's decision by the Commission on Presidential Debates to bar him from debating President Clinton and Republican nominee Bob Dole because it believed he does not have a chance of being elected, Perot said: "The American voters don't have a voice. Their views are ignored by the debate commission."
"The overriding factor" on whether a candidate should be included in the debates, Perot said, is whether "the owners of this country" want him.
Perot cited a recent Harris poll that found 76 percent of the electorate thinks he should be allowed to debate the major party candidates, as he was four years ago when he garnered 19 percent of the vote running as an independent.
The decision to "freeze me out" of the debates, Perot told 600 members of the Commonwealth Club of California, was made by a commission composed of Democrats and Republicans and "funded by corporations and foundations who have a lot at stake here, and (whose) chairman, believe it or not, is a registered lobbyist for the gambling industry."
Perot was referring to commission co-chairman Frank Fahrenkopf Jr., former chair of the Republican National Committee, who is president and chief operating officer of the American Gaming Association.
Perot is running as the nominee of the Reform Party, which he founded and funded. Perot won the party's nomination over former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm, whom Perot refused to debate.
Perot said the Reform Party will sue the commission in U.S. District Court in Washington "to determine whether 76 percent of the voters should decide who gets to debate, or should it be left up to the two political parties and political writers that they call on the phone to get their opinion."
Before the 1992 debates, Perot's standing in the polls was lower then that it is now - between 6 and 8 percent - but afterward he "roared up" in the polls.
"Now do you understand why they don't want this cur dog included - just two registered puppies," Perot said to laughter.
Perot placed most of the blame on Dole, whose advisers believe Perot will cut into the anti-Clinton vote, thus helping the president.
"The primary reason for keeping us out of the debates and not selling us television time is to protect and to preserve Washington's corrupt political practices," Perot said.
"This is a blatant display of power by the Republicans and the large donors who fund their campaigns and then get rewarded handsomely, and every penny of those handsome rewards comes from hard-working taxpayers, and we're going to stop that," Perot said.
Perot said Clinton, the Democratic Party and "40 Republican congressmen, who bolted from Dole, wanted me in, but they were ignored."
Inclusion in the debate is "so critical," Perot said, because it is the only way a candidate can get his views presented to the expected 80 million viewers.
Perot renewed his criticism of the networks for refusing to sell him air time "so we can explain the issues in depth to the voters" via the 30-minute infomercials that boosted his candidacy in 1992.
He said the two major parties want to force him to use one-minute commercials, as they do, because "they don't want you to understand these problems in detail. We are determined that you will. ... I don't think this is democracy as the framers of the Constitution intended."
With him excluded, Perot said, they will be no discussion of campaign finance reform, lobbying reform, the revolving door practice of former government officials working as lobbyists, and setting higher ethical standards for Congress and the White House.
But Perot was philosophical, saying, "Nobody ever said life is fair." Being left out "just gets us excited. I love being the underdog - there's no place to go but up."