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Text File | 1993-04-04 | 3.7 KB | 79 lines

                                                                                U.S. POLITICS, Page 29

OPERATION DIG

By Dan Goodgame/Washington -- With reporting by Nancy
Traver/Washington


    No one relished the cut and thrust of negative campaigning
more than the late Lee Atwater, who applied to politics the
ancient military maxim: Know yourself, and know your enemy. As
manager of George Bush's 1988 campaign, Atwater emphasized the
role of what he called the "35 excellent nerds" in his
Opposition Research, or "Oppo," unit. They pored through the
political record of Michael Dukakis and dug up the emotional
issues -- the Pledge of Allegiance, Willie Horton -- with which
Bush battered his rival.

    Ever since, the term Oppo has conjured to many Democrats
sinister images of muckraking and distortion. In fact, Oppo was a
vital component of major local and national campaigns long
before 1988. And practitioners in both major pardistinguish
between "political pornography" and legitimate inquiry into
public statements and actions that might bear on an opponent's
fitness to hold office. Fred Malek, manager of the Bush
campaign, says his campaign's research efforts are aimed at
scanning old and current news stories and other public records
and coding them into computers by topic, "so that we can pull it
up quickly whenever we need it."

    The Oppo shop at the Bush campaign employs six paid staffers
and about a dozen young volunteers under the direction of David
Tell, a slender, red-bearded 32-year-old who, friends wryly
note, flicks his Camel butts into an "Elvis Lives" ashtray. This
team is helped by a staff of 20 to 40 people at the Republican
National Committee who work shifts through the night, when time
is available on the RNC mainframe computer. Comparable staffs
at the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign number
about 30. The Perot campaign says it employs only two
researchers. All the campaigns eagerly provide tips to reporters
seeking information about their rivals. But most journalists
seek independent confirmation of the stories before publishing
them.

    The Perot and Clinton camps have accused Bush operatives of
going beyond legitimate research to what Perot calls spreading
"false allegations" to reporters, and what Paul Begala, a senior
adviser to Clinton, calls "rummaging through all the garbage
cans in Little Rock." Neither campaign, however, has documented
a specific example of any Bush operative's violating the
President's public order to "stay out of the sleaze business."

    In any case, political skulduggery can be difficult to
prove. For example, a Republican source bragged that the Bush
campaign and RNC have sought information on Clinton's alleged
extramarital affairs and stalled G.O.P. approval of the New
York state budget, thus helping keep Governor Mario Cuomo from
challenging Bush, but have insulated themselves by having the
dirty work performed by trusted G.O.P. political consultants.
Bush campaign chairman Robert Teeter and five of his colleagues
independently denied the allegations.

    The flap over opposition research reflects a fierce
disagreement over what issues are legitimate. As in 1988, the
Democrats want the race to be decided on the basis of who has
the best 12-point plans for public works and such. Bush,
howevis determined to distract attention from his dismal
domestic record by dredging up evidence that his opponents lack
the character, temperament and "valthat voters seek in a
President. As for Perot, Clinton strategist James Carville put
it best: "He's new to this league, and he doesn't understand the
intensity of the scrutiny of everything you ever did or said."
He is, however, learning fast.