And Then There Were Six

Who killed Joseph Biden's presidential campaign? The Delaware Senator, announcing last week that he "will stop being a candidate" for the Democratic nomination, singled out one person. Said he: "I'm angry with myself for having . . . put myself in ((this)) position." Indeed, he could hardly blame anyone else for passing off the eloquent words of other politicians as his own and thus starting the media furor that drove him out of the race.

But if Biden stupidly loaded a metaphoric gun and pointed it at his forehead, he had help in pulling the trigger. It certainly was not Biden who alerted the press to those unattributed word-for-word quotations, and it strains credulity to think that reporters for two influential newspapers just happened to discover them simultaneously at the precise moment when the Senator was about to make his big bid for national attention by presiding over hearings on the nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court.

In fact, informed sources have told TIME, the primary tipster or tipsters were connected with the rival presidential campaign of Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. Aides to Missouri Congressman Richard Gephardt, another Democratic presidential hopeful and the focus of early suspicion, appear to have done little more than call the attention of reporters to an already published story after the uproar had begun. The Reagan White House, also a target of rumor and innuendo, denies any involvement at all.

Biden's troubles began with stories in the New York Times and Des Moines Register three weeks ago pointing out that the Senator's emotional closing statement during an Iowa Democratic debate duplicated a televised speech by Labor Party Leader Neil Kinnock during last spring's British election campaign. The Register implied its source was an "attack video" that contained snippets of both speeches spliced together by the campaign camp of one of Biden's Democratic rivals. The Times did not mention it, but two sources say it had a duplicate video in its possession. The tapes of the two speakers, which were eventually aired on U.S. television, show Biden not only echoing Kinnock's words but aping his gestures.

A Register staffer involved in preparing his paper's story has told colleagues the video was supplied by the Dukakis campaign. A reliable source says someone connected with the Dukakis campaign also gave the video to the Times. Craig Whitney, the Times's Washington bureau chief, insists that "nobody spoon-fed us the story," which he says resulted from "brilliant reporting" following up "several tips." Told about the alleged Dukakis campaign involvement, however, he says, "I just don't know if your information is correct."

Dukakis' aides strongly deny being the source of the Kinnock tape, which is hardly surprising. Though the Biden revelations were true and raised legitimate questions about him, all the Democratic contenders are anxious to avoid any appearance that they are trying to knife one another. Paul Tully, Dukakis' political director, says his organization checked "up and down the line" and concluded "it was not this campaign and not our people in Iowa." Could it, however, have been a campaign ally -- a financial backer, say, or a media consultant -- acting without the knowledge of Dukakis' headquarters? Says Tully: "That would astound us."