He Contends That ‘They Should Be Activists Not Analysts’ : Jackson to Party Leaders: ‘Quit Jiving and Go to Work’

Rev. Jesse Jackson, fending off criticism that he has not campaigned vigorously enough for the Democratic ticket, on Thursday accused other Democratic leaders of being “analysts when they should be activists.”

Too many party leaders, Jackson said in an interview aboard his chartered jet, have blamed Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis’ Boston-based campaign organization for the poor showing that the national Democratic ticket is making in their areas. He expressed particular scorn for local officials who have complained that their participation has not been solicited by the Dukakis campaign.

“The motivation for involvement should not wait for a signal from Boston. This is not the time to discuss the ins and outs of the Boston operation. We’ve got another team we are playing,” Jackson said.

Referring to this election’s popular technique of trying to persuade--or “spin”--the media about the meaning of debates or other events, Jackson said: “The leaders should spend less time spinning the press and more time weaving the Democratic quilt . . . spinning the press doesn’t require a lot of work.”

In a speech before a church group here, he urged other Democratic leaders to “shift from being analysts to being activists . . . . Quit jiving and go to work.”

After the highly publicized strain in his relations with Dukakis before and after last summer’s Democratic convention, Jackson himself has been accused of making less than an all-out effort for the national ticket. The harshest words came from former Rep. Barbara Jordan of Texas, who last month accused Jackson of petulance and said that he “never quite realized he was defeated for the Democratic nomination.”

Jackson’s pace is not as hectic as it was during his own presidential campaign, and he receives sparse national news coverage. However, he often makes more daily appearances than the candidates themselves. In the last two days, he drew crowds numbering in the thousands on college campuses in Seattle and Boulder.

Jackson’s travels are being funded by the Democratic National Committee and local organizations that request him to speak.

“We are affecting more people, traveling more miles and registering more voters than any other Democrat,” Jackson said. “That’s a fact.”

He expressed satisfaction with the role he is playing in the presidential campaign, and he said he speaks with Dukakis about two or three times a week.

Jackson’s speeches, which sound many of the themes from his primary campaign, focus more on criticizing Republican presidential candidate George Bush than extolling Dukakis’ virtues. However, he dismissed suggestions that this indicated less than wholehearted support for the Massachusetts governor, saying: “It’s not unusual for people to be motivated by contrast.”

While Dukakis has tried to distance himself from the liberal tag that Republicans are trying to pin on him, Jackson has defended liberals.

Liberal, he told the University of Washington students, means “Liberate. Expand. Grow. Get better. The slave masters were conservatives of traditional values.”

Jackson also accused the Republican candidates of resorting to “McCarthyism,” and said Bush and his running mate, Sen. Dan Quayle, seem to enter an “ethics-free zone” when attacking the Democrats.

“I see the return of McCarthyism in that kind of approach,” the civil rights leader said at the University of Washington in Seattle on Wednesday and again at the University of Colorado in Boulder on Thursday. His reference was to the late Wisconsin Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy’s unscrupulous attacks against alleged communists.

“I believe the American people are enlightened and can separate the superficial from that which is of substance, however,” Jackson added.

“We love our country. We pledge allegiance to the flag . . . . But more and more flags are being made in Taiwan and Korea,” he complained to loud cheers.

Jackson said in the interview that other Democratic officials--particularly conservative Southerners, whose constituents have defected in large numbers to the national Republican ticket--should be held to the same standards that he is.

“The press is not saying, ‘Sam Nunn, where are you? . . . . Chuck Robb, where are you?’ ” Jackson said, referring to the influential Georgia senator and former Virginia governor.

He noted that Alabama, a state that Dukakis has little chance of winning, “has two Democratic senators. Why aren’t they getting out there and working?”

“This is the time for the DLC (Democratic Leadership Council, a moderate-to-conservative group of influential Democrats) to show its true grit in the South,” Jackson said. “If they match my schedule, if they match my efforts, if they match my attitude, we are going to win, and we are going to deserve to win.”