WASHINGTON - Reform Party presidential nominee Ross Perot yesterday called Republican nominee Bob Dole "rude and arrogant" and said Dole had "poisoned the attitudes of millions of independent voters" for opposing Perot's participation in debates this fall.
Speaking on two morning talk shows, the Texas billionaire spoke harshly of Dole and the decision to keep him out of two presidential debates, saying it would deny him the opportunity to get his message out to millions of viewers.
Dole's campaign had argued against Perot's participation in the debates, scheduled for Oct. 6 and 16, while President Clinton's campaign wanted him in. Perot said he will file a lawsuit today challenging the recommendation of the Commission on Presidential Debates that Perot be excluded because he did not have a realistic chance of being elected.
Negotiators for the Dole and Clinton campaigns finalized a debate schedule Saturday, with the Dole campaign prevailing on the decision to include only the two major candidates.
"Senator Dole did something really dumb politically, and that is he poisoned the attitudes of millions of independent voters who put the Republicans in power in the House and Senate with what he's done," Perot said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Perot argued that Dole "was willing to sacrifice the Senate and House races so that he wouldn't have to confront me. Now, here's a guy that's supposed to be a war hero. You'd think he'd be willing to stand up and talk to another person, wouldn't you?"
At the same time, Perot said he would encourage voters "not to let the anger of Senator Dole's throwing us out of the debates ... affect who they select."
Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," Perot said Dole was "the point man" on excluding the Reform Party nominee from the debates and "has been rude and arrogant in this in a way that I had never seen him act before. I guess he's desperate."
Asked about Perot while campaigning in Illinois yesterday, Dole indicated he went along with the debate panel. "I'm not on the commission," The Associated Press quoted Dole as saying.
House Majority Leader Richard Armey (R-Texas) who appeared later on "Meet the Press," dismissed Perot's warning that Republican congressional races could be harmed because Dole had angered independent voters over the debate issue.
"I'm not worried about that," Armey said. "Quite frankly, this commission made the decision and both President Clinton and Senator Dole have agreed to run with the commission's recommendations. ... If Bob Dole's afraid of something, I'm pretty darned sure it is not, it certainly is not, Ross Perot."
Also appearing on "Meet the Press," Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), chair of the Democratic National Committee, said Clinton campaign officials had made it clear that they wanted Perot in the debates but Dole campaign officials had said their candidate would refuse to debate if Perot was included.
"The question then is do we have debates with the two of us or no debates at all, and the president, wisely, in my view, made the decisions we'll have debates," Dodd said.
Perot said his campaign had planned to air a 30-minute commercial each week on each of four major networks on issues such as social security, Medicare, Medicaid and welfare. But he said the networks would not sell the time before he was an official candidate and later they offered only "remnants" of air time.
The combined effect of the debate decision and "day after day being bombarded across the country by the two parties," Perot said, put him at "a serious, serious disadvantage."