Smoldering Embers, Scared Politicians

THE COUNT MIGHT YET GO HIGHER: SOME 200 OF THE nearly 2,400 injured might succumb, and cleanup crews might find more bodies in burned-out buildings. But the death toll, currently 53, already certifies the Los Angeles riots as the bloodiest in the U.S. in at least 75 years. And the embers from more than 5,500 fires still smolder, metaphorically -- as George Bush found out touring the riot areas last week. His guardians were so concerned for his security that they would not tell TV crews what route he would take, lest live coverage draw hostile demonstrators. But some showed up anyway, chanting "Go Home" or "No Justice." In response, Bush delivered a many-sided message. "Just wanton lawlessness," he said, viewing the twisted skeletons of washers and dryers in a torched laundromat. But he also told police officers that he wanted to "get at the root cause" of the unrest, and he promised federal help in rebuilding Los Angeles -- while yet remarking that "dumping largesse" from Washington on the community was not the answer. Sturdier values are needed, said the President, and the Federal Government cannot teach youths how to tell right from wrong.

The attempt to cover all bases was understandable. Politicians are sure that the riots and their aftermath will be a major issue in the November elections. But past the immediate impact -- another drop in Bush's popularity -- they cannot be sure how it will play. Will frightened voters respond to stern pledges to restore law and order, or heed calls for new efforts to heal racial animosity, or demand some elusive combination of both? Unable to fix immediately on the right blend, candidates instinctively responded by trying to place blame, while piously denying that they were doing any such thing. White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater initially blamed Democratic Great Society social programs enacted in the '60s and '70s that had backfired -- a statement so widely derided that Bush quickly amended it to say merely that those programs had lamentably not worked very well. Democratic heir presumptive Bill Clinton in turn decried "12 more years of neglect" of racial and urban ills while Republicans have held the White House.

What the Administration might do is not yet clear. It has been trotting out Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack Kemp to talk up a conservative- activist agenda featuring inner-city enterprise zones and measures to enable public-housing tenants to own their apartments, but Bush has not made it a priority. He has so far promised $600 million in federal assistance for rebuilding. More might be needed. Property damage is already estimated at $785 million, and the figure is bound to go higher, quite likely topping $1 billion. An estimated 10,000 businesses have been shut down, many never to reopen. Peter Ueberroth, the former baseball commissioner and 1984 U.S. Olympics organizer, who has been designated chief of Rebuild L.A. by Mayor Tom Bradley, puts the number of lost jobs at 25,000 minimum -- maybe three times that many.