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COMMENTARY: Connecticut Pols Rush To Support Untested Bush, Not Faltering Gore

By Chris Powell

Governor Rowland, who chaired George Bush's presidential reelection campaign

in Connecticut in 1992, has brought the state Republican Party quickly behind

the presidential candidacy of the former president's son, Texas Gov George W.

Bush, who raised $1.4 million at a thousand-dollar-a-plate fund raising dinner

last month in Greenwich, home of his grandfather, the late US Sen Prescott

Bush.

Connecticut's top Democratic officials, who long have been close to the

Clinton administration, seem to have developed an informal consensus for Vice

President Al Gore for the party's nomination for president, though the only

endorsement so far has come from Democratic state Chairman Edward L. Marcus.

Connecticut's two Democratic senators, four Democratic US representatives,

four Democratic state constitutional officers, and Democratic state

legislative leaders aren't on the record yet.

Meanwhile a grass-roots insurrection is brewing on behalf of Gore's

challenger, former US Sen Bill Bradley of New Jersey.

Bush's ascendancy is a matter of his being the two-term governor of a major

state, his famous name, and a slogan that encourages an ambivalent or even

hypocritical public to project its hopes upon him: "compassionate

conservative." (That is, people always can claim the compassion for themselves

while they apply the conservatism to others.)

Whether and how Bush will put meaning into this slogan may be the measure of

his success. He has a huge head start, including an impressive lead in the

polls and more campaign money than any presidential candidate has ever had so

early, almost $36 million. But he has not yet been tested. He has made a few

small mistakes in public remarks, his record in Texas has not been scrutinized

though it provides material for controversy, and there is still doubt about

his intellect.

By contrast, Gore has been tested for many years in the House of

Representatives, the Senate, and vice presidency, and though he is well known

his popularity falls off sharply with people who are not obliged to the

administration. A recent poll showed Bradley, still little known, only 10

points behind Gore in Connecticut, so the state's history of susceptibility to

the outsider in Democratic presidential primaries almost makes Bradley the

favorite here.

Indeed, though it is not all Gore's fault, everything suggests that the

Democrats would be better off with someone else at the top of their ticket

next year. While the country didn't want Gore's senior partner impeached for

his sexual misconduct in the White House, the disgrace Bill Clinton has

brought to the presidency is generally acknowledged and argues for a fresh

start, which is exactly what Gore cannot be, the more so for his having been

part of the ridiculous defense of the president prior to Clinton's admission

that he had lied to the country.

And while the cliche about Gore's method is that he is "wooden," his real

problem may be that his public remarks are often dogmatic, smug, and

mindlessly loud, and thus contrast even more unfavorably with Bradley's

restraint if not his attempts at thoughtfulness.

But Gore, not Bradley, is the one with the connections to leading Connecticut

Democrats.

Connecticut's senior senator, Christopher J. Dodd, has done brave service for

the Clinton administration, undertaking the Democratic national chairmanship

at the president's behest for two difficult years while the party's fortunes

were revived. Dodd may be expected to help the administration again. Besides,

he has a brother who was appointed an ambassador by Clinton.

Sen Joseph I. Lieberman was among the earliest supporters of Clinton's

presidential candidacy in 1991, having worked with him in the Democratic

Leadership Conference when he was governor of Arkansas. Lieberman also is

considered an ideal vice presidential candidate for Gore, providing geographic

and ideological balance, though his Senate term expires next year, and it is

not clear whether he would give up the Senate for second spot on the trailing

ticket or whether he would take the vice presidential nomination only if he

could simultaneously seek reelection to the Senate, as Lyndon B. Johnson did

in 1960.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal seems to have a standing offer of a

federal judgeship from the Clinton administration. US Reps Sam Gejdenson of

the 2nd District and Rosa DeLauro of the 3rd have worked with the Clinton

administration from its start, while first-term Rep John B. Larson of the

first may be too new to office to consider going against it.

While Lieberman and the US representatives face reelection next year, only US

Rep. James H. Maloney of the 5th District, trying to represent the most

conservative congressional district in the state as a Democrat, may be in a

competitive race and thus terribly concerned about the strength of the party's

presidential candidate. A landslide at the top of the opposite ticket almost

brought Maloney down last year and could do so again. So Maloney has taken

pains to separate himself from his party's leadership very visibly on certain

issues, and Bradley's candidacy might give him another opportunity.

As long as Gore does poorly in the polls, Connecticut's Democratic leaders may

hold back from endorsing him publicly, thus giving Bradley more room to

maneuver in the state -- and themselves room to maneuver later if, toward the

end of the year, Gore still promises only to drag the party down.

(Chris Powell is managing editor of the Journal Inquirer in Manchester.)