[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 139 (Friday, September 8, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1750]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        MEAN-SPIRITED CAMPAIGNS

                                 ______


                        HON. ANDREW JACOBS, JR.

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 8, 1995
  Mr. JACOBS. Mr. Speaker, our colleague, the Honorable Richard Lugar, 
has, in the following Indianapolis Star article of late August 1995, 
stated a truth that badly needs stating in this late 20th Century 
political atmosphere of incivility.
  Those candidates who denounce and demean bring about a deadly contest 
of hate. In so doing, they serve their country not well.
               Republican Campaigns Misguided, Lugar Says


hoosier declares that competitors' exploitation of voters' emotions is 
                the wrong way to get to the white house

                        (By Mary Beth Schneider)

       Maybe it was the local crowd of die-hard supporters.
       Maybe it was the natural result of six months on the 
     campaign trail, honing his message and his delivery.
       Maybe it was just that Sen. Richard G. Lugar, R-Ind., has 
     heard one acid-tongued speech too many from some of his 
     competitors for the Republican nomination for president.
       Whatever the reason, Lugar came home to Indianapolis on 
     Monday and delivered the kind of speech that his critics say 
     he can't--sometimes funny, often fervent, and with a point 
     aimed right at the hearts of voters who tell pollsters 
     repeatedly that they are sick of attack-dog politics.
       In no uncertain terms, Lugar rejected the exploitation of 
     ``wedge issues'' that candidates like Sen. Phil Gramm, Pat 
     Buchanan and Gov. Pete Wilson have found can boost their poll 
     numbers.
       ``We do have a dogfight out there,'' Lugar said of the 
     presidential campaign. But the battle, as he described it, 
     seemed not just a fight for higher poll numbers for himself, 
     but a fight for the soul of the Republican Party.
       Speaking at a luncheon honoring an organization he helped 
     form to boost the political careers and involvement of women, 
     the Richard G. Lugar Excellence in Public Service Luncheon, 
     Lugar described the typical GOP candidate forum for the 
     several hundred Hoosiers.
       One candidate, he said, boasts
        of being the most conservative, with a happy record of 
     killing bills offered by ``commies, socialists, 
     radicals.''
       That diatribe, Lugar said, is topped by the next candidate, 
     who says he is really the most conservative and brags, ``You 
     can't find anyone meaner or nastier.''
       These candidates--he didn't name them; he didn't have to--
     talk about immigration and affirmative action. Those are 
     legitimate issues for debate, Lugar said, ``but that's not 
     their purpose in raising them.''


                           emotions exploited

       Candidates and anyone else who can read a poll know 
     Americans are deeply worried that this country is on the 
     wrong track; and some are making political hay by exploiting 
     that fear and exacerbating division, he indicated.
       He cited meatpacking workers in Iowa, who worry about their 
     stagnant wages and are ripe for the pitch by some candidates 
     that illegal immigrants are siphoning away the jobs and 
     income.
       Instead of discussing real problems and real solutions, 
     discussions that inevitably involve boring and tedious 
     complexities, those candidates call for walls on U.S. borders 
     or a freeze on immigration, Lugar said.
       ``Raw meat,'' he said. ``Raw emotion for people who sense 
     the political system is not working well for them.''


                       fighting for what's right

       He spoke with passion in favor of affirmative action--the 
     type of affirmative action where someone works to open 
     opportunities because that is right and not because it is the 
     law.
       Looking at the crowd there to honor this women's political 
     network he had helped form, Lugar said some would suggest 
     women shouldn't need or get a helping hand up in politics.
       But it was right, Lugar indicated, to ``jump-start'' the 
     opening of political opportunities for women.
       He noted the minority scholarship program he began. ``Isn't 
     that affirmative action?
       Yet, some Republican candidates boast of racing to the 
     White House to dismantle affirmative action.
       ``What kind of a party, what kind of an idea is that?'' 
     Lugar said. ``I tell you--that's the nature of this 
     campaign.''


                        stands up for inclusion

       It's a campaign that is ``extremely misguided, mean-
     spirited and nasty,'' he said, but ``some Republicans think 
     that's the road to the White House.''
       Instead, Lugar said, it is the road to defeat.
       Republicans should stand for an opportunity for all 
     Americans to reach ``the starting line of life'' with better 
     education, health care and inclusion in society.
       ``To solve problems, we must deal with them 
     constructively,'' he said. ``That is my campaign. . . . It 
     has to be a constructive process that reaches out to all 
     Americans.''
     

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