Objects to Remark That Poor Showing Means He’s Through : Dole Rejects Staffer’s View on Iowa Bid

WASHINGTON —  Sen. Bob Dole and the operations director of his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination took exception Friday to a remark by another top Dole campaign official that the senator “has to do it in Iowa” or “he is through.”

“Well, I don’t know,” Dole replied when reporters asked him about the recent remark by Steve Roberts, a former Iowa Republican Party chairman and now the co-chairman of Dole’s Iowa campaign. Then he sidestepped: “I think Steve Roberts is certainly a good co-chairman. We are going to do well there.”

Bill Lacy, Dole’s national operations director, was more direct. “I don’t think,” Lacy said, that Roberts’ remark “really represents the view of our campaign here in Washington, necessarily, or the view of some of our chief officials out in Iowa. Steve is doing a great job for us out there, but I think on that particular point he was probably speaking his own opinion.”

Roberts’ assessment undercuts the usual political strategy of trying to minimize expectations in that early contest.

The efforts by Dole and Lacy to distance the campaign from the statement came during a meeting with a small group of reporters at the Capitol. Dole had invited the reporters to the office he occupies as minority leader to announce an exhaustive travel schedule during the monthlong congressional recess expected to begin this weekend. He said he would campaign in 60 cities and 28 states, attend 100 events and hold 40 news conferences.

Dole also:

--Suggested that there are concerns among party activists that Vice President George Bush is a “qualified loser” who could handle the job of being President but can not win it. He said he got that impression in a recent conversation with a member of the national committee who stressed the importance of choosing a candidate who could be elected. He acknowledged that Bush is “the clear front-runner” in the 1988 presidential race, with a big lead in organization and fund-raising. But Dole said he is “catching up.”

--Denied that he disparages Bush for his wealth and patrician background. But Dole, whose family worked hard to make a living in a Kansas farm town, added: “Obviously we have different backgrounds.”

--Was asked about Bush’s recent remark to a reporter that he had been “vindicated” by the Iran- contra hearings. Dole said: “You have to be implicated to be vindicated.” He added: “When your strength is foreign policy, people could ask why (you) didn’t say, ‘Mr. President, let me interrupt. . . . ‘ “

--Said it was premature to discuss pardons for Iran-contra figures John M. Poindexter and Lt. Col. Oliver L. North.

The statements by Roberts regarding Dole’s Iowa campaign appeared in last Sunday’s Des Moines Register. Iowa, Roberts said, could be a sudden-death state for Dole, who “has to do it in Iowa. If Dole doesn’t do well in Iowa, he is through; and I would say the presidential race is through on the Republican side.

“We’re the only ones with a chance to touch Bush in Iowa and the Midwest; and if we don’t touch him, it’s all over,” Roberts was quoted as saying. “George Bush can take a hit in Iowa and survive. Bob Dole can’t--no question about it.”

Dole smiled Friday and quipped: “I have to do better than I did in ’80.” In that presidential race, Dole did so poorly that his campaign never got off the ground.