Bush, in Slam at Perot, Warns of ‘Pig in a Poke’ : Campaign: In a speech to Texas GOP, the President takes off the gloves in veiled jabs at his challenger.

DALLAS —  A hoarse and agitated President Bush unleashed his first attack on Ross Perot on Saturday, blasting one of his key proposals as irresponsible and warning voters “there is too much at stake” in the race for the White House “to buy a pig in a poke.”

Bush, who had been insisting he would refrain from attacking his foes until later in the campaign, never mentioned Perot by name in his speech to the Texas state Republican convention. But many of his remarks in Perot’s political back yard clearly were aimed at the billionaire, whose groundswell of support has threatened the President’s reelection chances.

Bush’s “pig in a poke” line, for instance, underscored Perot’s lack of government experience. And in a reference to Perot’s suggestion that he would conduct electronic “town meetings” to gauge public opinion on major issues, Bush called it “just plain irresponsible and out of touch with reality.”

In another reflection of Bush’s troubled political prospects, the President earlier in the day wrapped up a three-day swing through California by seeking to make amends with the state’s influential anti-tax movement.

Bush--whose pledge to fight new taxes helped him win the White House in 1988 and then landed him in hot water when he raised them two years later--tried to return to the fold of true believers with a no-holds-barred denunciation of taxes before the civic organization that grew out of the Proposition 13 tax revolt.

Sprinkling his speech in Universal City with a litany of political buzzwords, he lashed out at the “tax-and-spend liberals still in charge of Congress.” He called them “the same crowd we’ve seen for decades: in charge, unchallenged, out of control.”

He also invoked one of the GOP’s favorite targets among Democratic congressional leaders--Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy--attacking “the stale idea of a Ted Kennedy-style system of nationalized health care.”

Of three public appearances in California since Thursday, Saturday’s speech to a meeting of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. may have been the most politically important.

The organization is named after one of the two men who sparked Proposition 13, which dramatically reduced the state’s property taxes 14 years ago. And the group owes its continuing existence to concern over many of the same issues that have fueled Perot’s support: anger over the public’s tax burden and the unresponsiveness of government.

For all of Bush’s efforts to appeal to his listeners by identifying with these issues, he was interrupted only occasionally by applause and some of his toughest lines were met with silence.

His speech in Dallas--his most animated in months--received a much more enthusiastic reception. His words were greeted with waves of applause and cheers from a crowd estimated at 10,000.

Unleashing his fire with the authority of a six-shooter, he questioned Perot’s credentials for office on a variety of fronts.

“Snappy answers and glib talk will not get the job done,” Bush said. “Let somebody else become the darling of the talking heads on television. I’m going to keep on fighting to get something done for this country.

“There’s too much at stake for America to forget about trust and judgment and values. Too much at stake, as we say here, to buy a pig in a poke.”

Bush focused on the personal characteristics needed for the presidency, a possible preview of a general election strategy in which he draws distinctions between his own style and that of Perot’s.

“It’s a big job to set the (nation’s) course . . . and it means solving big problems with a level head, with tolerance and good judgment,” Bush said. “Being President is a demanding job. And a President must be temperamentally suited for the job. And I have been tested by fire, and I am the right man for that job.”

He scoffed at Perot’s electronic town meeting concept as he discussed his decision to respond with force to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

Referring to Perot’s pledge not to raise taxes except in such cases as a war supported by the public, Bush said: “It is just plain irresponsible and out of touch with reality to suggest that a President should take a poll and get a tax increase before he leads the world against aggression. . . . I do not need to take a poll to know what’s right when it comes to standing up against aggression.”

Perot was not Bush’s only target during the day.

In both Texas and California, he said that “unlike one of my opponents,” he did not believe that “a massive tax increase” was the only way to balance the federal budget.

White House deputy press secretary Judy Smith said this was a reference to a statement she said Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, made in early June.

A wire service story, in fact, quoted Clinton as making the statement June 3 in Los Angeles.

But Avis LaVelle, a campaign spokeswoman for Clinton, said of Bush’s charge: “All that Bill Clinton has said is that you have to close the tax loopholes on corporations and increase taxes on the richest Americans. That doesn’t constitute a big tax increase.”

In his Universal City speech, one technique Bush used to woo his audience was to hitch onto his predecessor’s political coattails, almost as though he were once again Ronald Reagan’s running mate.

“Since I and Ronald Reagan came to Washington in 1981,” he said, taxes have been cut across the board. “Time and again, Ronald Reagan and I have pushed for popular reforms,” he added, only to be thwarted by Congress.

One aide described Bush’s address to the conservative group as a “red-meat speech.” In it, he identified himself with Americans who “shop at K mart” and “eat at Carl’s Jr.”

He also said: “It’s not only your right, it’s your duty to your family, to fight high taxes and government waste. And when liberal elitists ridicule you and say we have social problems because of you--because you’re ‘greedy’--well, naturally, you stand up and fight back.”

And in a further effort to establish a bond with his listeners, he said: “The air is crackling with the feeling that Howard Jarvis made his battle cry--’I am mad as hell.’ ”

One of those in the crowd, electrician John Bellin of Arcadia, said he remained “a little disappointed” in Bush. But Bellin added that he hopes Bush will “get the message talking to groups like this, and I’m hoping he’ll renew his stand” against taxation.

The man’s mother, Jayne V. Bellin, remained unmoved by what she had heard. Describing herself as a lifelong Republican, she said: “But I’m definitely not going to vote for President Bush.”