EMERSON SUGGESTS BUSH ADDRESS DOMESTIC ISSUES

President Bush needs to turn his attention to domestic affairs, U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, said Friday.

In a telephone interview from his Washington area home, Emerson suggested the president needs to assemble a high-level policy team to focus on the domestic economy.

He said he and other Republican lawmakers are unhappy that Budget Director Richard Darman and Chief of Staff John Sununu "continue to dictate the domestic agenda of the Bush administration."

"I think we have certainly expressed vigorously to the president our frustration," said Emerson.

He maintained Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp should be given a key role in shaping the Bush administration's domestic economic agenda.

Emerson was one of about 100 House Republicans who signed a letter earlier this month urging the president to do just that.

"I think that Kemp has a lot of good economic ideas," said Emerson. "He is a pro-growth, pro-jobs Republican and has a lot of good ideas, and I think they ought to pay more attention to what he says."

Emerson said that "all is not well with the economy."

The Republican congressman said, "One of Bush's biggest mistakes was caving in last October (1990) to the liberal position in the budget summit fiasco.

"I think that is partly responsible for the lack of flexibility in the budget process these days.

"The overwhelming majority of Republicans last fall did not agree with the president on the budget and it created a climate, an atmosphere, of great tension," said Emerson.

The budget measure, he said, included "a very significant measure of new taxes" that has had a stifling effect on the nation's economy.

"This is part of the discontent that Republicans in the House have with the president."

But Emerson said that not just Bush, but Congress must share responsibility in failing to deal with economic issues.

Liberal Democrats, he said, have turned up the rhetoric in attacking Bush. "The liberals are now in a position where they are tasting blood. They feel like they have the president on the run."

Emerson said, "The liberal Democrats were badly burned in the Persian Gulf undertaking. They opposed it. It was eminently successful. They have been smarting ever since."

Liberal Democrats, he said, are trying to focus attention away from the president's foreign policy and military success.

Critics have said Bush has paid too much attention to international affairs and not enough to domestic concerns.

But Emerson said that with the developments in the Persian Gulf, Soviet Union and Eastern Europe this year, the president "has been quite legitimately preoccupied with international matters."

Still, he said, Bush needs to turn his attentions to the nation's economy. "My frustration has to do with the fact that a moderately conservative president hasn't articulated well enough a domestic agenda to ward off the liberal Democrats from being at his heels every time he turns around."

Emerson said the Senate confirmation hearing on Clarence Thomas' nomination to the Supreme Court, which focused on sexual harassment allegations, "gave Congress a black eye."

"Certainly, the process poisoned the water between liberals and conservatives in Congress," he added.

But Emerson said he was "delighted" Thomas was confirmed.

He said discussions are under way between the president and Congress geared to reforming the confirmation process.

There were some successes this year, Emerson believes. The passage of a federal highway bill in the waning days of the session was "probably the most significant piece of domestic legislation" that came out of Congress this year, the congressman said.

The bill, he said, will boost highway construction. "It couldn't come at a better time because we know the economy is lagging," said Emerson.

On the international front, Emerson rates the Persian Gulf War as a foreign policy success for the United States. "That was the foreign policy highlight."

Lawmakers adjourned Wednesday, marking the end of the first session of the 102nd Congress. The second session of that Congress begins in January.

Emerson said that with 1992 being an election year and "the political heat rising," it will likely be more difficult for lawmakers and the president to reach agreement on major issues such as a crime bill.

"I hope Congress can find it possible to lower the level of rhetoric," said Emerson. "But I also suggest that we are moving into the political season. Inevitably, that is going to muddy the water."