Dukakis Receives Cool Greeting From NAACP : Resentment for Choice of Sen. Bentsen Grows

The political marriage of Michael S. Dukakis and Lloyd Bentsen had a rocky first day Wednesday, as resentment and anger swirled over charges that the presumed Democratic presidential nominee had snubbed rival Jesse Jackson by not telling him earlier of his vice presidential choice.

On a day when the new Boston-to-Austin Democratic ticket hoped for kudos on Capitol Hill, Dukakis and Bentsen were repeatedly put on the defensive over the sudden strain with Jackson, as well as the sharp policy differences between the presidential candidate and his running mate.

Appearing before the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, which had given Jackson a rousing reception 12 hours earlier, Dukakis won a lukewarm response at best from the 1,500 delegates. He drew such light applause at his arrival on the podium that civil rights leader Benjamin L. Hooks quickly linked his arm and told the crowd: “Since you’re not going to say anything, let’s sing, ‘We Shall Overcome.’ ”

Dukakis and his aides insisted that he had tried to call Jackson at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday in Cincinnati to notify him of his choice, but that Jackson already was en route to Washington. Dukakis said he had apologized to Jackson when they finally spoke two hours later for not getting the news to him before he found out from a reporter.

Susan Estrich, Dukakis’ campaign manager, said she had spoken several times to Ron Brown, one of Jackson’s closest advisers. “We continue to work together and we certainly hope to have a strong and unified convention, and a strong and unified campaign in the fall,” she said in a telephone interview from Boston.

The Massachusetts governor tried to make light of the flap at a press conference here, however, saying he “hadn’t spoken to Michael Jackson in months.” Asked about the renewed threat of a floor fight when the Democratic National Convention opens in Atlanta Monday, he replied: “That’s OK, that’s all right. As I said the other day, if people want to debate certain issues they have a perfect right to. We’ll have a debate.”

Dukakis and his running mate also are likely to have an unusual debate in coming weeks. Both men said that Bentsen, a three-term senator from Texas, will continue to vote in the U.S. Senate for aid to Nicaragua’s Contras and other issues that directly contradict the Dukakis presidential platform.

Will Continue on Job

“His job is to continue to vote as he sees fit in the Senate,” Dukakis said. “If we’re elected in November, then obviously the relationship will change.”

“Obviously we have some differences on some issues,” Bentsen agreed. “I’m going to exercise my conscience and my judgment on those.” He praised Dukakis for not choosing “a clone.”

Bentsen has indicated support for a proposal to give $30 million in aid to the Contras, including $9 million in military aid. Proponents expect to introduce the bill in Congress this week, but a vote is unlikely before the Democratic convention. Dukakis has repeatedly called U.S. aid to the Contras illegal.

Bentsen supports, while Dukakis opposes, the MX missile, the B-1 bomber, school prayer, and the oil import fee. Bentsen, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, also is the leading recipient in Congress of contributions from political action committees, a practice that Dukakis has said he will try to ban.

Emphasize Agreement

The two men tried to paper over their differences at a crowded press conference at the Hart Senate Office Building, emphasizing their agreement instead on campaign pledges for better jobs, education, housing and health care. “I think it’s a message that America is waiting for, and I think it’s going to go well in November,” Bentsen said.

But Dukakis’ dispute with Jackson dominated a day that included the speech before the NAACP and meetings with the Black Congressional Caucus, and the Senate Democratic Caucus and House Democratic Caucus.

As campaign aides watched with pained looks, Dukakis won only scattered applause during his NAACP speech, drawing his biggest cheers when he said he had “learned a lot from Jesse.” He did not otherwise mention Jackson’s role. Bentsen also drew polite applause, telling the crowd “indifference is simply not an option in 1988.”

After the two candidates spoke, a dozen convention delegates complained in interviews that Dukakis’ remarks had not healed the wounds. Most seemed less upset about the choice of Bentsen than about how Jackson got the news.

“‘We’re hurt,” said Rupert Richardson, head of the Louisiana NAACP branch in Baton Rouge. “We’re hurting for Jesse and with Jesse.” Ann Coleman of the Bronx was more bitter. “In my estimation, Gov. Dukakis borders on arrogance,” she said angrily. “He came across as ‘I’m gonna do it my way and I don’t give a damn.’ Jesse deserves more than that.”

No ‘Viable Option’

Still, said Paul Spraggins, a delegate from Waukesha, Wis., “I don’t think we have a viable option other than the Democratic Party.”

Dukakis had to explain his phone call to Jackson when he and Bentsen met 22 members of the Black Congressional Caucus. Afterwards, Rep. Mickey Leland (D-Tex.) said it was a “misperception” that Dukakis had treated Jackson badly. But he said the two needed to get together to send a clearer signal of unity to black Democrats.

Dukakis’ version of the events is that he tried to call Jackson and six other contenders at about 8:15 a.m. from his Statehouse office in Boston to announce his choice. He already had spoken to Bentsen at about 6:30 a.m., but said he did not make additional calls then because “we had a lot to do, send a plane down (for Bentsen), and so on.”

Jackson apparently already had left his hotel in Cincinnati to fly on a charter jet to Washington. When Dukakis finally reached him about 10:30, “I said to him, as I said to Sen. (John) Glenn (of Ohio), that I was sorry I’d missed him on the first call,” Dukakis said. “And wanted him to know that once you make the selection of your running mate and he accepts, and you begin to put the machinery in motion, it becomes news. So that’s what happened.”

Dukakis and his aides tried to downplay the foul-up in a campaign that has made few mistakes on the road to nomination. “Our intentions were good ones,” Estrich said.