HICAGO - Vice President Al Gore and his campaign yesterday opened a new front in their attacks against Texas Governor George W. Bush by focusing on the conservative voting record of Bush's new running mate, Dick Cheney.
The Gore campaign hopes that the former Wyoming representative's votes will become a campaign issue. They also hope it will skew perceptions of the Republican ticket just ahead of next week's GOP convention in Philadelphia.
The first salvo was fired here on the opening day of the convention of Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, a group based in Illinois, a battleground state where black voters can make a decisive difference in the election.
In a speech to the coalition's board of directors, Gore attacked the perception of Bush and Cheney as moderates. He also appealed to black voters to shed their cyncism about politics and turn out in November. ''I will not let you down,'' he said.
Gore applauded Republicans for being ''smart enough to know that people do not want to go back'' to the economic, racial, and social problems of the past. But, he said, ''They have concocted a strategy of phrases and photo opportunities to convey the impression of... moderation. I expect even more of it when the Republicans gather next week in Philadelphia. I'll tell you, it's going to be quite a show,'' he said, quickly adding, ''but you and I know both know this is not show business.''
Speaking from similar talking points, Jackson offered a harsh critique of the voting record of Cheney, who also was defense secretary when Bush's father was president and was chief of staff to President Gerald Ford.
''We all know that image is a big part of high-tech politics,'' Jackson said. ''How someone looks on TV can hide flaws. Dick Cheney has an image that is palatable.''
Jackson then rattled off a list of Cheney's congressional votes, saying he had voted against funding for Head Start, civil rights, and women's rights. ''He was against sanctions in South Africa not once, but six times. He was against our freeing Mandela from jail.''
The closest Gore came to letting his feeling be known about the selection of Cheney was to compliment Jackson for speaking ''eloquently.'' Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett dismissed the criticism as more of the Gore campaign's ''old style, negative campaiging.''
In a campaign appearance in Wyoming yesterday, Cheney explained his South African votes by saying, ''I consistently opposed the imposition of unilateral economic sanctions. I don't believe'' they ''work.''
As for Gore's vice presidential choice, Gore and his aides have largely kept their own counsel. Gore will leave today for a family vacation in North Carolina.
One senior campaign official said that because several people in Gore's inner circle had worked with several of the people whose names are being bandied about as running mates, including Massachusetts Senator John F. Kerry and House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, their advice might be considered biased and of little use to Gore. Besides, the vice president was better at making decisions, this aide said, when he made them from his own ''gut.''
