Mondale's Demanding Suitors

Hart offers a truce, but women are getting more restless

The meeting did not start well. Walter Mondale, who had walked over from his hotel 15 minutes earlier, met his dogged challenger Gary Hart at the front door of the elegant Manhattan townhouse. The Colorado Senator, who had been up late, told Host Arthur Krim that he could use some coffee. "Your people said you'd want tea with your bacon and eggs," said Krim, a motion-picture executive. "That's the trouble with my campaign," replied Hart. "I like lots of coffee, and I don't eat eggs."

Once the two adversaries had sequestered themselves in the study, shirtsleeves rolled up and notes at their sides, the mutual accusations began, each man coldly recalling stinging statements made by the other during the campaign. But after two touchy minutes, the ice was broken: both admitted that much of the rhetoric had been ill advised and, while offering no direct apologies, agreed that they were sorry that things had got out of hand. They then put the final touches on an accord that, by removing the threat of a Hart challenge to the credentials of Mondale delegates, effectively ended their bitter Democratic nomination battle. Mondale's next summit in his quest for a peaceful convention will be in Kansas City on Tuesday, when he meets with Jesse Jackson.

For Mondale, the truce with Hart was a welcome relief amid his anxiety over how to deal with Jesse Jackson. But the worries of the presumptive nominee are hardly over. Hart still plans to continue his own candidacy, a muted challenge that could force Mondale to offer him the second spot on the ticket. At the same time, the chorus urging Mondale to select a woman running mate has unexpectedly swelled; what seemed a few weeks ago a daring option for Mondale now threatens to foreclose any other option.

Mondale and Hart had briefly spoken by telephone two days after the last round of primaries on June 5 and agreed that they needed to talk in person at some point. But Mondale insisted on hammering out a detailed agreement before sitting down with his defeated rival.

His primary goal was to prevent a convention challenge to the validity of some 600 delegates whose elections, Hart charged, had been "tainted" by contributions from political action committees. For his part, Hart was mainly interested in gaining support for a "democracy package" of campaign reforms in 1988 and, in particular, revising rules that worked to his disadvantage this year. One was the inclusion of 568 "superdelegates" chosen from among the party Establishment, most of whom favored early Front Runner Mondale. The other was a requirement in some places that a candidate collect at least 20% of the vote in a primary or caucus before winning any delegates.