Politics 1-800-Pound Guerrillas

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It is hard to believe that less than two months ago, five Democratic contenders were conducting a civics-book campaign in New Hampshire, rising to the occasion as the voters earnestly debated the fine print in their policy proposals. But then cynicism kicked in as the candidates were forced to adapt to the destructive realities of too many primaries demanding too much money for too many negative ads. Desperate to know the candidates, all that the voters in the 15 March primary states heard was the irritating static of petty politicians sniping at each other with exaggerated charges and counterclaims.

With Tsongas out of the race, ire set in when Democrats, with more than half the delegates yet to be chosen, were deprived of the one thing they craved: a real choice. Democratic leaders deserve some of the blame for artificially stacking too many primaries around Super Tuesday to create an early consensus. By tinkering with the rules, the Democrats fell victim yet again to the law of unintended consequences: Clinton was anointed as the de facto nominee before most Democrats were comfortable with him. Little known before the campaign began, Clinton is now being defined by Brown's sound bites, his own blunders, like golfing at a segregated country club, and the work of investigative reporters delving into the less savory aspects of his record in Arkansas.

Last week Clinton was jolted by a New York Times story alleging that he had helped remove a provision in a tough 1988 state ethics code that would have forced disclosure of potential conflicts of interest in his wife Hillary's law firm. The Clinton campaign issued a detailed rebuttal, and a spokesman claimed "misrepresentation on the part of the New York Times."

The obvious beneficiary is Brown -- Public Enemy No. 1 for Establishment Democrats -- who inherits a larger platform than he might otherwise deserve. The former California Governor's shrill attacks on Clinton as the "scandal a week" candidate of complacent political insiders led the customarily neutral / party chairman, Ron Brown, to denounce the candidate's "scorched-earth policy" of verbally assaulting the Democratic front runner. Snapped Jerry Brown: "I think it is understandable that ((Ron Brown)) becomes overzealous in his protection of the old order."

As a protest candidate, Brown has so far avoided the scrutiny routinely applied to other contenders. He speaks in metaphors rather than in the nuts- and-bolts details of position papers. Early in the campaign, he did not even have an economic policy -- "That's coming, we're working on it," he used to say, before returning to decrying the corruption of the status quo. His most innovative proposal -- a 13% flat tax coupled with a 13% value-added tax -- is in its way reminiscent of Reaganomics, beguiling on the surface save for the awkward problem that the numbers do not add up. Liberal critics persuasively claim that Brown's regressive plan would raise the tax burden of lower-income Americans while cutting it in half or those who earn more than $567,000.