Republican Ads Assume Victory By Clinton

House Republicans, implicitly conceding Bob Dole’s defeat in the presidential race, are undertaking a television advertising campaign to argue that a Republican Congress is needed to deny President Clinton “a blank check.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee plans to spend about $4 million in 50 tough House districts on a spot reminding voters of what Clinton and the Democrats did or tried to do in 1993 and 1994, before the Republicans took control of Congress.

The advertisement begins with an announcer saying: “What would happen if the Democrats controlled Congress and the White House? Been there, done that.” Then it shows newspaper headlines from 1993 and 1994 involving Clinton and taxes, health care and waste in Washington.

While the picture on the screen shows men around a table with money on it, the announcer says, “The liberal special interests, aligned with Clinton, desperately want to buy back control of Congress.”

The decision to run this advertisement followed moves earlier last week to have field operatives from the national committee tell embattled candidates that they should effectively write off Dole’s chances in their own campaigns and urge voters to send them and other Republicans back as a check on Clinton.

Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., interviewed Sunday on “Fox News Sunday,” said he had personally approved the script. He maintained the advertisement was “frankly, as tough on Clinton as it is on the Democrats in Congress.”

Republican polling has shown widespread public support for divided government in Washington. Those findings have encouraged the party to think many voters can be talked out of voting for House Democratic candidates by being confronted with the likelihood that this would cement Democratic control in Washington.

But the new party advertisement, which was first reported in The Washington Post on Sunday, has to tread carefully around that admission. It does not openly argue for divided government. That would require admitting that Dole is likely to lose, and, in fact, the commercial never mentions his name at all.

The advertisement closes with a picture of a blank check, signed “American taxpayer,” hovering over the Capitol Dome, and a woman staring into a crystal ball while the announcer asks, “Who is going to represent us?”