AIDS heckler ignites Clinton

[United Press International]

The frenetic pace of the campaign for the Democratic presidential
nomination is taking its toll on Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and former
California Gov. Edmund ``Jerry'' Brown, while Republican President Bush
relaxed in the comfort of incumbency.
Clinton lashed out at an ACT-UP member Bob Rafsky during a New York
speech to several hundred lawyers Thursday night.
Rafsky heckled Clinton for not paying enough attention to AIDS,
saying the candidate was ``dying of ambition.''
Clinton exploded, shaking his finger at Rafsky and almost shouting:
``I'm sick and tired of people who don't know me making their snotty-
nosed remarks. I've had about enough of this. I have listened to all
these attacks, attacks, attacks on me. That's just a bunch of bull.''
Clinton told Rafsky, ``I understand you're hurting. You can't stop
hurting by trying to hurt oither people.''
As for ambition, Clinton said, ``If I were dying of amibition, I
wouldn't have stood up here and put up with all this crap I've put up
with over the past six months.''
Meanwhile, Brown said on the ABC-TV ``Prime Time Live'' program that
he might get married if elected pesident.
``I'd be more likely to do it if I were elected president. You have a
lot of responsibilities, and it's a tradition,'' said Brown, who once
courted singer Linda Ronstadt.
On the GOP side, Bush remained at the White House wrapped in the
presidency, his active campaigning for the Republican nomination
temporarily on hold. His challenger, conservative commentator Patrick
Buchanan, who had embarrassed Bush in the early contests by picking up
about 30 percent of the protest votes, has curtailed his campaigning.
Buchanan has been in Florida this week raising funds before hitting
the trail again next week.
Brown took his message to Wisconsin, saying he was there to fight for
the soul of the country and its future.
``If you think there is something fundamentally wrong with America
and we're not getting at the heart of what's pulling us apart and
holding us back as a people, then you have another choice,'' Brown told
about 400 people at the University of Wisconsin-Parksidesaid. ``You can
take back America.''
``I know the fact that you're here is not just about me, it's about
something that hasn't been going on in American politics,'' Brown said.
``There's a big hole here that hasn't been filled. We need people like
you demanding that we have a government that can measure up to the
challenge of this period we are now in. We need a creative defense of
our values.''
Clinton picked up endorsements Thursday from one of his former rivals
for the nomination, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who dropped out of the race
little more than two weeks ago, and from the International Ladies'
Garment Workers' Union, the largest private sector union in New York
with 125,000 active and retired members in the state.
Clinton's march to the Democratic nomination stumbled this week when
a protest vote against him gave Brown a slim victory in Connecticut's
primary.
The two remaining Democrats next meet in the key delegate-rich New
York primary, which is held April 7, the same day that Wisconsin and
Kansas also vote.
The Clinton campaign made it clear that Brown's tax plan would be a
major focus of their attack in New York. Brown would do away with the
current federal tax structure and replace it with a flat 13 percent
income and sales tax with deductions only for housing interest, rent and
charitable contributions.
Opponents say this plan would increase the budget deficit by
billions, raise taxes on the lower and middle classes and cut taxes only
for the rich.
Several influential New Yorkers have come out against the plan.
In a Senate speech Thursday, Sen. Daniel Moynihan, D-N.Y., said
Brown's flat tax would eliminate the Social Security tax -- ``it would
put a silver bullet through the heart of Social Security. ... Surely,
the Democratic party will not forsake its proudest program of the 20th
century.''
Moynihan's attack came a day after New York Gov. Mario Cuomo
criticized the plan following a meeting with Brown in Albany. Neither
Moynihan or Cuomo have endorsed either candidate.