Democrats Set Standard for Messing Up

Welcome to another chapter of: “Those Incredible Shrinking Democrats!”

In Chapter One, Gary Hart exploded because he lied. In Chapter Two, Joe Biden dissolved because he pilfered.

And now, in Chapter Three, Mike Dukakis is damaged because his campaign . . . told the truth!

That’s right. That’s what his campaign manager, John Sasso, did. He provided accurate information to reporters about Joe Biden’s plagiarism.

Accurate information is what the press says it wants. But sometimes we are just kidding. Ha-ha.

Because after Sasso provided videotapes demonstrating Biden’s plagiarism to two newspapers and a TV network, his villainy was uncovered and he was forced to resign.

And Dukakis is damaged because he didn’t know his campaign manager was providing the truth to the press.

Which led to the embarrassing scene of Dukakis going on TV and apologizing to Biden. Just what was he apologizing for?

I am not sure. Biden did plagiarize and did lie about his credentials. He admitted that when he pulled out of the presidential race.

So shouldn’t the Dukakis camp be praised for exposing this liar and hypocrite?

No, it was a terrible thing to do. Because in politics, especially Democratic politics, candidates do not try to hurt each other. (For you home video buffs, it is OK to insert a laugh track here.)

Even though the American people are far better off knowing the sins of Joe Biden so they can evaluate them, Dukakis said revealing them was a terrible, dirty thing and he was ashamed of it.

Go figure.

The role of the press in all this is interesting. Had the press discovered Biden’s plagiarism on its own, that would have been fine.

But because Sasso raised the plagiarism issue himself to a reporter and then provided evidence, he was destroyed.

I was in Washington at a seminar for political reporters when the news broke. And as I was trying to figure it all out, I asked one longtime political correspondent to pin down for me exactly what Sasso’s sin had been.

“His sin,” he replied, “is that he got caught.”

Which means that if you are going to give the press what it wants--all the information all the time--you better be darn careful to cover your tracks.

But that is ancient history. Sasso is small fry compared to what the press can now turn its attention to: Dukakis himself.

Dukakis now looks like a man who does not know what is going on in his own campaign.

Although the press criticizes candidates who are too closely involved in the running of their campaigns (Bob Dole is one example), we nonetheless hold candidates responsible for everything their underlings do.

So Dukakis is damaged. How can he run the country, the accusation goes, if he cannot run his own campaign? How can he criticize Ronald Reagan for being too detached, when he was too detached?

It raises the question of what Dukakis doesn’t know and when doesn’t he know it. This is a man, after all, who says he didn’t know his wife was on amphetamines for 26 years.

But doesn’t it seem strangely unfair for Dukakis and Biden to be damaged? If Dukakis was wrong to damage Biden, doesn’t that mean that Biden should be able to get back into the race?

No, because what Biden did was wrong. And Dukakis was wrong to tell us about it.

If you’re confused, imagine how the Democrats feel. That very old joke is still very true: When the Democrats form a firing squad, they stand in a circle.

All this came at the worst possible time. Just when the Democratic candidates were shaking their Seven Dwarfs image, they now have become the Gang Who Can’t Shoot, Walk, Talk or Think Straight.

The whole primary process is a war of attrition, but the final candidate is not supposed to be the guy who has made the least ass of himself during the political year.

While the Democrats were supposed to be reaping the benefits of Ronald Reagan’s “sleaze factor” this year, instead they have been having their own Harvest of Shame.

The Democrats were supposed to confront the nation with important questions about domestic and foreign policy.

Instead, the nation has one question for these Democrats:

Doesn’t anybody here know how to play this game?