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CLINTON SAYS HE IS NO LIBERAL [1]

['John F. Harris', 'September']

Date: 1996-09-24

Trying to blunt Republican Robert J. Dole's charge that he is a "closet liberal," President Clinton responded yesterday that his record shows that he is no liberal, and that the scrutiny he receives as president ensures that he has no closet.

In an Oval Office exchange with reporters, Clinton made no effort to defend the ideology that was the Democratic Party's guiding philosophy for several decades after Franklin D. Roosevelt launched the New Deal in the 1930s. Instead, Clinton moved quickly to tear off the liberal label -- with all the pejorative implications Republicans have attached to it -- that Dole was trying to pin on him.

"There's a real problem with that. . . . My record as governor, my record as president," said Clinton, who went on to promote his non-liberal credentials on issues from the budget and crime to welfare reform. He noted that under his administration, the federal deficit has gone down for four consecutive years "for the first time since before the Civil War" -- a statement that is apparently true, but ignores the fact that there have been many years over that period when the government did not add to its debt but ran annual surpluses. On crime, he noted that his 1994 crime bill calls for the "death penalty for drug kingpins and people who kill police officers." And his support of overhauling welfare, Clinton said, proves that "the record doesn't support the charge."

While he and Dole have different plans for balancing the budget and cutting taxes, Clinton said, "I don't think that qualifies me as a closet liberal."

"Besides that, a president is too exposed," Clinton joked. "I don't have a closet."

Dole leveled his "closet liberal" charge over the weekend in Illinois, and he kept it up yesterday in an appearance in the Northern Virginia suburbs. Speaking at a trucking warehouse in Springfield with Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), who is seeking reelection, Dole appeared in front of a chart more than 10 feet high with a label saying, "Bill Clinton's liberal, big-government health care plan."

"The president came to town a liberal," Dole said. "He's still a liberal. The only thing that stopped him in his tracks is electing a Republican Congress in 1994."

In an interview yesterday, Clinton said his party was "sobered" by losing Congress in 1994, and dismissed Republican efforts "to raise the flag of, oh, those people would be so liberal if you let them."

But he argued, in an appearance on PBSs "NewsHour," that Democrats are more consistent than Republicans. Clinton said he believes that "at critical junctures, there is a critical role for government to play helping people make the most of their lives -- not guarantees, but opportunities." Republicans, he said, "always have condemned the national government," even though their ranks are filled with "this whole array of people who are miserable when they're not in the national government."

But he said he is eager to work with Republicans if he wins a second term. "What I want are more like-minded people," Clinton told interviewer Jim Lehrer.

Bob Carolla, communications director for the avowedly liberal Americans for Democratic Action, said its members have widely divergent views on Clinton and his political philosophy. While some would like to see a more vigorous defense of traditional Democratic ideals, others accept that Clinton, for reasons of expediency or genuine belief, doesn't hew to a consistent philosophy. Even so, the organization endorsed Clinton for reelection in January, and Carolla said it is satisfied that Clinton shares its "core beliefs."

Also in the PBS interview, Clinton gave his most extended remarks on Dick Morris, his former political consultant, who resigned last month after reports that Morris has subsequently acknowledged that he had a year-long relationship with a $200-an-hour prostitute.

"Well, what is there to say?" Clinton responded, asked why he had not said more about the incident. But then he went on at some length to praise Morris as a "a very gifted man. He's a very brilliant man."

Clinton said many people had misunderstood Morris's role. "The interesting thing about Morris is everybody saw him as someone giving political advice on how to tack to the right or tack to the center," Clinton said. "What I found most interesting and most helpful is he would frequently come up with new ideas, and about half of them I didn't agree with and didn't like, but a lot of them are perfectly consistent with what I wanted to do." CAPTION: Sen. John W. Warner listens as GOP presidential nominee Robert J. Dole assails president's record at joint campaign stop at Springfield warehouse. CAPTION: PRESIDENT CLINTON

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[1] Url: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/09/24/clinton-says-he-is-no-liberal/5eaf4a01-b16c-4056-a8e4-8488015ca477/

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