‘92 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION : Democrats Tap Kennedy Magic in Emotional Tribute to R.F.K. : Honor: The slain N.Y. senator helps conjure up the best memories of the party. His brother, Edward, calls for ‘return to ideal of compassion.’

The name haunts every Democratic National Convention, in good times and bad, a towering and ghostly presence inevitably diminishing the flesh-and-blood candidates who stand on the podium.

On Wednesday, as it has before, the Democratic Party paid emotional tribute to a fallen Kennedy--this time Robert F., the senator from New York who was assassinated in 1968 after a joyous primary night celebration in Los Angeles.

His picture filled the massive television screen on the convention stage, his toothy grin frozen in time. And by the thousands, delegates--including those who were children when he died 24 years ago--rose in rapturous applause. The Kennedy family stood with them in massive Madison Square Garden, tears shining in their eyes.

A generation after the senator’s death, nearly three decades after the killing of his brother, President John F. Kennedy, the family name still conjures up the best memories of the Democratic Party--young and vigorous men casting forth into a new frontier, an image that Bill Clinton and Al Gore have tried to revisit this year.

And the Kennedy name also conjures up the worst of memories for Democrats.

At the last Democratic Convention here in the summer of 1980 when his final bid for the presidency had ended, Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy delivered a yearning tribute to his brothers’ political cause.

And then he pointedly refused to shake the hand of the man who had defeated him in the primaries, President Jimmy Carter, as the two circled the podium together under the glare of the television lights.

The public rift helped end Democratic hopes for unity that Carter, the last Democratic President, still blames for his defeat later that year by Republican Ronald Reagan.

It was quite a different emotion that was dominant Wednesday night. Pure nostalgia washed over the convention hall in a wave.

The tribute began with a film honoring Robert Kennedy, introduced by the senator’s eldest son, Rep. Joseph Kennedy of Massachusetts. As the film ended and its words died away, Edward Kennedy, the last surviving son of a dynasty that defines modern Democratic politics strode toward the podium.

Kennedy, at 60 his hair completely gray, brimmed with political passion.

“After 12 years of wintry indifference at the center of power, it is time to return to the ideal of compassion,” he said. “We must end the politics of neglecting the needy and then blaming them for their pain. In the 1990s, we must make war against poverty, not war against the poor.

“An America that does not care is really not America at all.”

Kennedy singled out for special praise the party’s women--a touchy note for him to strike, given the past controversies about his lifestyle. Sharply partisan, he indirectly criticized prospective independent candidate Ross Perot and slashed at President Bush.

“As others turn to us now, we should not be stumbling, adrift, uncertain of our purposes and prospects,” he declared. “I just don’t understand how a President--any President--can be out of ideas for action here at home.”

Kennedy also paid tribute to presidential nominee Clinton, who, he said, “has sought to heal, to oppose hate, to reach across the divides and make us whole again.”

As the senator spoke, the normally rambunctious delegates stood in rapt silence, punctuating his address with rousing applause. Standing as well were a dozen family members--Ethel Kennedy, Robert’s widow; his sisters, Eunice, Jean and Pat, and a host of other Kennedys. Included were Caroline and John F. Kennedy Jr., children of the late President, and most of Robert Kennedy’s children.

As both Joseph and Edward Kennedy noted in their addresses, the newcomers and the powerful at this Democratic Convention were drawn into politics largely by members of his family. During his Tuesday night address, Sen. John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV of West Virginia credited President Kennedy for inspiring his decision to join the Volunteers in Service to America poverty program in 1964, a move that took Rockefeller to his adopted home state and set him on a course of political activism.

The national ticket has dealt carefully with the Kennedy legend. Clinton does not shrug off suggestions by his staff members that his candidacy resembles the Kennedys’. But he rarely resurrects their images. An exception came Wednesday night, when he made a surprise visit to the convention hall after officially winning the nomination--just as John Kennedy did in 1960.

And his campaign literature contains a picture of a teen-aged Clinton, flushed and excited, meeting then-President Kennedy in a Rose Garden session with high school leaders. Newly discovered film of the meeting was included in a video that will introduce Clinton to the delegates before his acceptance speech tonight.

Clinton’s vice presidential running mate, Tennessee Sen. Al Gore, drew the comparison between Kennedy and Clinton much more bluntly last week in Little Rock, Ark., when he was introduced as the junior member of the ticket. Lifting John Kennedy’s 1960 campaign slogan word-for-word, he declared that “the time has come again, the time for a new generation of leadership.”

Kennedy tributes at past conventions have turned into wrenchingly emotional affairs--in 1964, with the wounds of his brother’s death still raw, Robert Kennedy paid tribute to the late President in an address that brought tears to delegates’ cheeks and prompted a thunderous, 14-minute standing ovation.

Edward Kennedy’s 1980 speech, built on the emotions of a man who had failed in a lifelong quest to succeed his brother, drew tears as well.

“For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die,” said Kennedy, his voice cracking in anguish.

It is one of the certainties of martyrdom that Democratic presidential candidates are always measured against the looming myth of the Kennedy family, a characteristic that has frequently relegated the party’s recent nominees to comparative insignificance.

John C. White, the former Democratic Party chairman, believes that the Kennedys have defined Democrats from the days of the 1960 election.

Today’s Schedule

Here are today’s main events at the Democratic Convention:

Call to order

Nomination of vice president

Roll call of states

Acceptance speech by vice presidential nominee

Acceptance speech by presidential nominee

Closing ceremonies

TV Coverage

All times Pacific Daylight.

C-SPAN: 2 to 8:30 p.m.

CNN: 3 to 8:30 p.m.

PBS: 5 to 8 p.m.

CBS, ABC: 6 to 8 p.m.

NBC: 6:30 to 8 p.m.

KMEX: 9:30 to 11 p.m. (taped highlights)

Source: Democratic National Committee