Alexander declares candidacy with swipes at Gore and Bush

By Ron Fournier, Associated Press, March 10, 1999

NASHVILLE -- Lamar Alexander, who is fighting in the shadows of front-running GOP stars, declared his presidential candidacy yesterday by urging Republicans to look beyond familiar names. He belittled Al Gore on the Democratic side as President Clinton's "faithful assistant."

"This time the race is wide open," he said, pressing Republicans not to commit too early to George W. Bush or Elizabeth Dole. "There is no one whose 'turn' it is," Alexander said.

Four years ago, Bob Dole won the Republican nomination, after Alexander finished third in both the New Hampshire primary and the Iowa caucuses. Dole won in Iowa, and commentator Patrick J. Buchanan took New Hampshire.

Promising better schools, higher family incomes, and a stronger military, the former Tennessee governor said yesterday, "I am ready to help our country face the challenges of a new century."

He suggested that Bush, the Texas governor and early GOP favorite, is not as ready. "The new president should be someone who wants it, someone who is well-prepared for the job and someone who knows from the first day that he or she is in office exactly what they will do," said Alexander, a former education secretary who has been running for the 2000 nomination virtually since he dropped out of the 1996 race.

He didn't mention Bush by name, but aides said the Texas governor was the main target of his remarks.

Alexander, 58, also blasted Clinton and "his faithful assistant," Vice President Gore, the most likely Democratic nominee.

The Clinton-Gore "magic show" has disguised failing schools, bigger bureaucracies, weakening national defense, and deepening racial polarization, Alexander said.

"Our standards of right and wrong have sunk to a new low," he said, The next president must lay "a moral foundation."

Unlike 1996, a crowd of candidates is seeking the GOP nomination this time. Alexander, Bush, Mrs. Dole, Senator John McCain of Arizona, and Representative John R. Kasich of Ohio will vie for many of the same voters.

Businessman Steve Forbes, former Vice President Dan Quayle, activist Gary Bauer, Buchanan, and Senator Bob Smith of New Hampshire are fighting on the right.