Last Call, and Out Reeling

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Hart's last gasp may be to join forces with Jesse Jackson against Mondale. In several states, Hart and Jackson operatives are cooperating to elect more delegates and gain seats on the credentials and rules committees at the convention, where they can press charges that Mondale manipulated or evaded party rules to garner more than his fan" share of delegates.

A concerted Hart-Jackson "Stop Mondale" movement appears unlikely, however. Hart is scrambling to assure Jewish voters that he would not pick Jackson as a Vice President unless Jackson abandoned his pro-Arab tilt. Jackson, for his part, has been blasting Hart and Mondale equally for supporting the "supplyside economics" and "gunboat diplomacy" of President Reagan. He was swinging wildly and becoming increasingly moody and erratic as he tried to transform his flailing political crusade into a one-man peace movement. He has fired off a telegram to Syrian President Hafez Assad demanding the release of two Israeli diplomats, and proclaimed that he would venture to Nicaragua, Cuba and Africa. In a most unseemly move last week, he traveled to Mexico to attack U.S. "arrogance" toward Central America.

Politicians have often sought votes with good-will trips to such places as Ireland, Italy and Israel, and they rarely hesitate to meddle in foreign affairs for political purposes. (A fortnight ago, for example, Senator Edward Kennedy used his own political funds to bring a Miskito Indian mother from Nicaragua to Washington to testify about the death of her child at the hands of the CIA-backed contra rebels.) But it is unusual and inappropriate for political candidates to malign the U.S. on foreign soil. Either of Jackson's opponents would likely have been pilloried for such an act.

Jackson insisted that he was traveling to Mexico as a "private citizen," a claim made less credible by the presence of five campaign aides and six California supporters on board his chartered plane.

When questioned about how he financed his trip, he refused to give a clear answer.

Instead, he grew increasingly snappish with the press, joking that if he walked on water the headlines the next day would read JACKSON CAN'T SWIM.

With the primary season sputtering to a close, the looming question is whether the party can unify behind a nominee. As a first tentative step (and as a way to retire his $160,000 campaign debt), George McGovern last week tried to bring all three candidates together at a glittery Los Angeles fund raiser. Jackson, resentful that McGovern had endorsed a Mondale-Hart ticket, backed out. Some what wistfully, McGovern implored Hart and Mondale, "Go as gently as you can on each other." That brought grim smiles from the two adversaries, who were standing awkwardly ten feet apart. But no handshake.

— By Evan Thomas. Reported by Sam Allis with Mondale and Jack E. White with Jackson