CAMPAIGN ’88 : Play It Again, Lloyd

In these days of Democratic message control, Lloyd Bentsen’s daily duty is to sing refrains of Michael S. Dukakis’ speeches, and reporters have taken to calling this the “echo chamber.”

Before Bush decided to make a quick trip Thursday to accept a police union’s endorsement in Boston, the Democrats had planned to use the day to strike ominous chords about a Republican assault on Social Security. Dukakis introduced the theme in Boston and then Bentsen played on it in Santa Clara, Calif., and Everett, Wash.

“Over the past eight years,” he told paper mill workers in Everett, “George Bush, Dan Quayle and the Republican Party have waged unrelenting guerrilla warfare on Social Security.”

Appealing to those caught in what the Democrats call the “middle-class squeeze,” Bentsen urged workers in the Silicon Valley to “Try Bentsen’s law.

“First, look at the calendar. If it’s an election year, you’re going to hear some awfully soothing sounds from this Administration on Social Security, but if it’s an odd-numbered year, man the barricades and get yourself a firm grip on your Social Security card because they’re going to make a run at the benefits.”