EMPHIS - Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush both agree on the need for a victims' bill of rights. A no brainer, they both say.
But mere consensus could not keep the issue from becoming partisan fodder yesterday.
Arriving in shirtsleeves for a forum with victims of violent crimes and their relatives, Gore listened to the personal accounts and then declared his intention to fight for the victims' bill of rights if he is elected president in November.
Kicking off several days of addresses and initiatives on crime prevention, Gore, appearing at Rhodes College, took credit for helping to reduce crime nationally, and vowed to carry the Clinton-Gore adminstration's successes further.
''It's worth noting that for eight years now, we have seen a decline in the number of crimes committed in the United States in every category,'' Gore said. ''I want to continue that, but I think it's high time, indeed long past time, to focus on the rights of victims.''
Gore proposes a constitutional amendment to give victims of violent crimes and their families the right to attend sentencing and parole hearings for those who committed the crimes, to be notified when the criminal is up for parole or released from prison, and to take time off from work to attend legal proceedings without penalty from their employers.
''I want to be a law enforcement president,'' he said. He repeated the line that has become a mantra for him: ''I'm for the people, not for the powerful.'' And victims of crime are ''sometimes the most powerless people.''
After the forum, Gore hugged some of the people gathered with him, who had told stories of crimes he called ''unbearable horrors.''
Jodie Gaines Johnson, who was kidnapped, held captive for five days, and raped repeatedly by three men, said she feared her attackers would be released and she wouldn't know about it.
''I don't want to be in the grocery store and run into them,'' she said. '''Cause I am not strong.''
''God bless you,'' Gore said after she had finished speaking.
Gore's support for victims of violent crimes was featured in ads launched by the Democratic National Committee in 17 battleground states a few days ago. Yesterday's proposals added specifics to that 30-second spot.
Thirty-two states have enacted victims' bills of rights. In April, Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California and Republican Senator John Kyl of Arizona proposed a constitutional amendment very much like the one Gore urged yesterday, but without the provision allowing victims time off from work. Their constitutional amendment did not come to a vote.
Kyl called Gore ''disingenuous'' in a conference call with reporters yesterday, arguing that the Clinton administration had been responsible for the proposal's demise.
''He's getting a freebie here,'' Kyl said. ''He's for something it's easy to say you're for. But his administration has not supported the only version that could make it to the Senate for a vote.''
Kyl said the administration balked at the amendment because it did not sufficiently protect the rights of the accused. Gore spokesman Chris Lehane said the amendment was derailed by prosecutors who worried that some of its provisions would make prosecutions more difficult.
Either way, Kyl accused Gore of being ''AWOL on this issue.''
In response, Gore aides distributed a list of his statements and votes in favor of victims' rights dating back to a 1977 vote to compensate victims of violent crime.
''It's unfortunate that Senator Kyl is playing presidential politics here,'' Lehane said. ''If he were really concerned about a victims' rights amendment, he would welcome Al Gore's policy proposal as opposed to trying to score cheap political points.''
