Sees No Excuse for Support of Pardons : McCarthy Chides Wilson on Contra View

Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson will not have a Democratic opponent for another year, but does that mean he can come home to California these days and not watch his back?

Not a chance.

On Tuesday, while Wilson was beginning a month of trips around the state, one Democrat who would like to face him in 1988--Lt. Gov. Leo T. McCarthy--accused the senator of not respecting the law, trying to undermine the Constitution and providing a poor example for young people.

The issue was Wilson’s comment several weeks ago in Washington that, based on his preliminary reading of Senate-House hearings, he thought Lt. Col. Oliver North and Rear Adm. John Poindexter should be pardoned if they are charged with criminal conduct in the Iran- contra scandal.

North and Poindexter are not criminals, Wilson told reporters on July 21, they are “two men inspired by obvious and genuine patriotic conviction.” So President Reagan should pardon them “if they are indicted, yeah,” Wilson said in response to a question.

That struck McCarthy--who, like Wilson, is a lawyer--as undercutting the investigative process now under way by independent counsel Lawrence Walsh. McCarthy also thought Wilson was basing his statements on a dramatic change in opinion polls, which found strong support for North after he had finished testifying, in contrast to public feeling about him before he testified.

“The issue is whether California will have a senator who will stand with basic principles despite shifts in public opinion,” McCarthy said in a telephone interview Tuesday after he held a press conference in San Francisco to attack Wilson.

‘Disrespectful’ Idea

“Nothing more clearly raises that issue than the recent decision (by Wilson) to support a pardon for John Poindexter and Oliver North,” McCarthy continued. “I reject that idea as disrespectful of the rule of law and as undermining the U.S. Constitution. Do we really want presidential subordinates to disregard the law in pursuit of policies, confident that they will be rescued by a presidential pardon?

“If a federal grand jury indicts either Poindexter or North--or both--it would be profoundly wrong to take the Wilson approach of simply putting such indictments through the shredder of an automatic presidential pardon. . . .

“It is a poor example to set for the young people of this country, whom we encourage to respect the rule of law,” McCarthy charged.

McCarthy hopes to win the Democratic senatorial nomination in next June’s primary, and if he does, there is no question that a key part of his strategy will be to try to keep Wilson on the defensive.

That approach--and the negative campaign required to keep it going--was used by Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston in 1986 when he fought off his toughest challenge ever in defeating Republican Ed Zschau. Several of Cranston’s top campaign aides have signed on with McCarthy.

But on Tuesday, McCarthy indicated he is still feeling his way into the attack-style of campaigning. Asked several times in the interview to characterize Wilson based on the senator’s Iran-contra comments, McCarthy backed away, saying, “No. I am going to stick to this issue only.”

Meanwhile, down in the Wilson camp in San Diego, the senator’s top adviser, Otto Bos, brushed aside McCarthy’s charges saying, “We are not going to respond every time Mr. McCarthy makes comments on whatever issue tickles him.”