Bush Nets Bushels of Crabs, Bundle of Media Attention

NEW CASTLE, Del. — There is not much presidential about a crab boat. But chugging along in the Wiso II, hauling in bushels of squirming blue crabs, George Bush kept up his hot streak Friday in managing the theatrics of presidential campaigning.

For the third consecutive day, Bush pressed his case that he, and not Democrat Michael S. Dukakis, is the candidate for environmentalists.

Usually, when a candidate is three days into a single subject, interest and media attention have waned.

But in another in his recent run of successes in making campaign news--or at least making news pictures--Bush kept the cameras rolling with urgency Friday here on the Delaware River and before that on the troubled seashore of New Jersey.

Nipped by Pincers

Here, wearing gloves, he helped hoist and empty crab traps aboard the small Wiso II, saying “eeeek!” repeatedly when nipped by pincers, but always posing and smiling for two boat loads of circling reporters.

Once rank and polluted, the Delaware now supports a rebounding fishery, according to local officials. The vice president and his entourage raised about $50-worth of crabs during their 40-minute exercise. With him was former rival and former Gov. Pierre S. (Pete) du Pont IV, the current governor, Michael N. Castle, and Delaware Sen. William V. Roth Jr.

The afternoon event struck a contrast with a morning campaign appearance at the beach in Belmar, N.J. This was a place that suffered some of the summer’s worst publicity from contaminated medical wastes washing ashore.

Also at this beach, Dukakis made an earlier campaign stop to decry ocean pollution.

Ridicules His Rival

Bush ridiculed Dukakis, reminding residents that the governor’s Massachusetts Water Resources Authority applied for a permit in 1985 to dump Boston sludge into the Atlantic off New Jersey.

The Bush campaign pulls no punches about the purpose of such events, paced carefully so reporters can meet deadlines and the vice president is never pushed to exhaustion.

“Campaigning always comes down to pictures,” said Press Secretary Sheila Tate.

“If you do all your groundwork in laying out your positions on issues, which we’ve been doing for three months, then pictures can credibly reinforce things and create a stronger image at a time when people are really starting to pay attention.”

With his 72-hour campaign thrust on the environment, Bush has been as sharp a campaigner as many have ever seen him. Not only have the pictures been compelling--including an incursion Thursday into Dukakis’ Boston Harbor--but the vice president’s themes seemed to have more strength and credibility than might have been anticipated.

Speaks to Growing Fears

Never mind the Reagan Administration’s fierce resistance to clean-water appropriations approved by a bipartisan majority in Congress. Never mind a series of Administration officials who have become lasting symbols of hostility to environmental concerns. Never mind 7 1/2 years of unremitting environmentalist complaints about the Administration. Bush’s campaign is attempting to speak to some deep and growing fears about the condition of the planet in a year of drought and heat and gruesome beach pollution.

A few months ago, few political professionals, even partisans, would have given Bush much more than an even chance just to keep from being demolished on the environmental front. But repeatedly this week, he has presented himself as a Republican in the mold of President Theodore Roosevelt, father of the national park system. And for now, at least, opponents seem to be outgunned.

He was praised in New Jersey by Belmar Mayor Maria Hernandez.

“This has been a lost summer for the shore. But our hope is here on the platform,” she said, pointing to Bush.

Responds to Crowd

The vice president took the microphone, responding to the crowd, and allowed how “we’re going to have some fun” pushing Dukakis on the issue of pollution.

“That’s right. For almost two years my opponent fought to allow Boston’s sludge to be dumped off the New Jersey shore--the very shore on which he had the nerve to stand and promise clean water. Nice guy, yeah,” said Bush.

In what is becoming a battle of sloganeering, hecklers at the beach kept shouting the Democratic theme: “Where was George?”

‘Where Was Teddy?’

Overhead an airplane pulled a banner throwing the question back at the Democratic senator who coined the taunt. “Where was Teddy Kennedy?”

Bush joked with the protesters, “OK, I was home with (wife) Barbara. What’s wrong with that?”

Later on the Delaware River, Bush had finished his crabbing and was treated to an on-board snack of boiled crabs.

Before he threw the empty shells back into the water, he made sure: “These biodegradable?”