The Teflon Twins of 1988

Imagine the uproar if a television tape were discovered in which, say, Bob Dole argued that only devout Christians and Jews were entitled to serve in government.

Dole, of course, has never said anything like that. But his G.O.P. rival Pat Robertson made precisely that inflammatory statement in a 1985 broadcast of his 700 Club TV show. Robertson compounded the offense last fall by piously insisting that he had never harbored such sentiments, defiantly at odds with the constitutional tradition of separating church and state.

A month before the Iowa caucuses, has there been any outcry over Robertson's TV tape? Not a bit. None of the Republican presidential candidates have dared to challenge Robertson on the church-state issue, even though the former televangelist may run third in Iowa. This seeming immunity from reproach is reminiscent of the see-no-evil response to Jesse Jackson's "Hymietown" slurs about New York City in 1984. The Democrats running last time out made only muted responses to those anti-Semitic comments, nor did they stress Jackson's ties with black Hatemonger Louis Farrakhan. Last fall Jackson received a similar free ride about a far more minor peccadillo: his brief and ill-advised commercial endorsement of a chain of business schools. Had another candidate made a comparable financial arrangement, his judgment would surely have been attacked.

In this season of the character issue, nothing appears to stick to Robertson and Jackson. They could be called the Teflon Twins of post-Reagan politics, unabashed and unapologetic about intemperate statements, personality flaws and boastful exaggerations on their resumes. Robertson and Jackson remain carefree riders on the political roller coaster, rarely having to worry about the bumps and twists that have buffeted Gary Hart, Joseph Biden and Michael Dukakis. As other candidates pepper their rivals with grapeshot, these two preacher- politicians continue to have immunity from all but the most tepid criticism.

This timidity extends to discussions of issues. In a G.O.P. debate, no one demurred when Robertson claimed that legal abortion jeopardizes the future of the Social Security system by depriving the American economy of needed workers. Nor have his rivals responded to other flights of Robertson rhetoric, like his loose talk of rolling back Communism in the Soviet Union. On the Democratic side, there has been no direct criticism of Jackson's cavalier proposal for Draconian cuts in defense spending. Similarly, no Democrat has asked Jackson to explain how he could tap the nation's pension funds for a massive public works program without jeopardizing the income of retirees or providing expensive federal guarantees.

Strategists for other candidates purport to find nothing strange in these political grants of indulgence. Brian Lunde, Paul Simon's campaign manager, says about Jackson, "You don't beat on someone who doesn't threaten you." But Iowa polling data suggest that Jackson is taking some white populist votes that might otherwise have gone to Simon. In similar fashion, a top strategist for George Bush argues, "There is no percentage in directly taking on Robertson unless he takes you on." But Robertson poses a clear threat to Bush: his Fundamentalist faithful have embarrassed the Vice President in the initial political skirmishing in Michigan.