Brown Blasts Clinton Over Golf Incident : Politics: Candidate says Arkansas governor should explain his membership at a whites-only country club. He denies playing the role of ‘spoiler.’

Feisty and unconcerned about being a party “spoiler,” Democratic presidential candidate Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. on Friday criticized his rival, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, for playing golf at a whites-only country club.

“I think it’s symbolic of what we’re dealing with here,” the former California governor told reporters. “It underscores the choice before the party: Are we going to be moving into the future or are we just bringing back the good ol’ boys of yesteryear.”

In television interviews, press conferences and a campaign rally in this economically depressed town, Brown also compared those pressuring him to ease up on Clinton to Russian Bolsheviks.

“We actually have a media and party hierarchy that wants to shut down democratic debate,” he told about 500 supporters at the campaign rally here. “It reminds me of the Bolsheviks in Russia. . . . (They) would like to have one name on the ballot. We all know how well that worked in Russia.”

Later, at a press conference, Brown was asked whether he was afraid of becoming a “spoiler” who cripples Clinton’s ability to run in the fall. “Spoil what? That’s what I want to know,” Brown said.

He then modernized the Bolshevik metaphor. “You saw what happened to the Politburo. They controlled the debate. They didn’t allow any spoiler, and the whole system collapsed,” Brown said. “That’s exactly what’s going to happen to the Democratic Party if they keep carrying on in the way they have.”

This came on a day when veteran Democratic pollster Peter Hart was quoted as saying: “Jerry Brown is going to be extremely dangerous because, in essence, he’s going to be the Che Guevara of the 1992 presidential election. He’ll go anywhere and fight with any tools available.”

Brown’s new tool was the golf incident.

On Wednesday, the day after many experts believe Clinton virtually clinched the Democratic nomination by winning primary victories in Illinois and Michigan, he played golf in Arkansas at the Little Rock Country Club, which excludes blacks from membership. As governor, Clinton has an honorary membership in the club.

Clinton’s club membership flared into an issue when the Washington Times published a story about it and Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, who is black, issued a statement declaring that the front-runner had “gravely damaged the Democratic Party by recreating at a racially exclusive club.”

In response, Clinton told reporters: “I am a candidate for President now, and I shouldn’t have done that. And I won’t play golf there again until they integrate.”

That was not enough for Brown, who has questioned Clinton’s electability because, he says, “there’s a scandal a week.”

Brown’s staff, fanning the flames, distributed to reporters copies of the Washington Times story and Wilder’s statement.

The former California governor said of Clinton: “He is a Shakespearean actor with the greatest ability to wiggle out of tough situations. . . . But he’s got a lot to explain--and not just by saying: ‘Whoops!’ ”

Brown pointed out that Clinton has been an honorary member of the club for a long time. “Every year they have to renew his honorary membership,” Brown said. “He never said: ‘Forget it, I don’t want to be part of that club until you admit all Americans and not just the chosen few.’ ”

Brown said Clinton “ought to explain” to the black voters he is courting “why he’s at a club playing golf where they can’t.”

He stopped short of calling it a scandal, however, saying: “I would call this an unusual characteristic. I don’t think a governor of New York or California or Connecticut would ever fall into that trap.”

Brown has belittled Clinton’s governmental experience lately because of the state he represents.

“We’re talking about a relatively modest performance at best in a rather small venue, versus the major leagues,” Brown said at the campaign rally, comparing Clinton’s governorship with his own. “California is bigger than all the countries of the world except seven.”

Brown was asked what his goal is in Tuesday’s Connecticut primary. He replied: “A winning percentage.”

Did he still think Clinton was not electable?

“I have my doubts,” he replied. “We’ll get a much better idea when we get through New York (on April 7). That’s a land mine of aggressive commentators and media types that eat candidates for lunch, breakfast and dinner.”