‘92 REPUBLICAN CONVENTION : Gramm Faces Tall Order as Keynoter : Speaker: But the ambitious Texas senator is used to tackling tough jobs. After a winding path to power, he has won recognition, and criticism.

Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) calls himself a “redneck Republican,” but he has a Ph.D. in economics and taught college for nearly a decade before he entered politics as a Democrat, switched parties and became instantly effective in a Congress where seniority counted for almost everything.

The balding, bespectacled man who will deliver the keynote address at the GOP convention Tuesday night is a study in contrasts, a shrewd and tireless lawmaker who has often antagonized his Senate colleagues but apparently endeared himself to a solid majority of ordinary folks in his adopted state of Texas.

As a free-market conservative with near-perfect marks from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and flunking grades from organized labor and environmental organizations, Gramm has been doggedly loyal to George Bush since he placed the President’s name in nomination at the GOP’s New Orleans convention in 1988.

His Houston convention task is more formidable: persuading a demoralized, somewhat fractious party and the nation that a President in office during a lingering recession, whose popularity is sagging to record lows in opinion polls, can rebound and win a second term in the White House.

Typically, the tenacious Gramm is not discouraged by his assignment or the difficulty of warding off the challenge of Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and a newly unified Democratic Party. He eagerly sought the keynoter role, possibly to burnish his image with fellow Republicans for a run at the presidency himself in 1996.

Gramm sometimes casts himself as the political heir of former President Ronald Reagan, who also achieved success despite humble beginnings, started as a Democrat and kept a common touch that was as good as political gold.

Detractors of the Texas senator, meanwhile, often accuse him of “Gramm-standing” for taking credit for others’ projects, and also criticize him as brash and overly ambitious. A joke among Texas reporters is that the most dangerous place in Washington is the space between Gramm and a television camera.

In his keynote address, Gramm has said he will compare Bush’s record at home and abroad to Clinton’s promises, and blame the Democratic-controlled Congress for frustrating the President’s domestic program.

“The American people know our government stinks,” Gramm declared. “The question is, why aren’t we doing the things that need to be done? You can make a very strong case that the problem is right on Capitol Hill.”

Even so, he acknowledged Bush faces an uphill fight.

“This race is so tough,” Gramm said, “and the winner will be the (candidate) who is leaning at the finish line.”

Gramm, who has a reputation as a political gut-fighter and pithy phrase-maker, came to the top the hard way. Neither of his parents went to high school, and his father, an Army master sergeant, suffered a serious stroke when Gramm was an infant. His mother, working as a practical nurse, was the main breadwinner.

“I failed the third, seventh and ninth grades,” Gramm recalled. “Yet my mother pushed and prodded me until I got a Ph.D. in economics.”

Gramm was born in Ft. Benning, Ga., 50 years ago. He received his doctorate from the University of Georgia in 1967 and began teaching at Texas A&M; in College Station shortly thereafter.

Now a leading champion of a strong military, Gramm was draft-age at the time of the Vietnam War, but he avoided service with a student deferment. He explains that he was in a very competitive academic field. “I just didn’t feel that it made sense for me to go into the military,” he said.

With remarkable chutzpah, the virtually unknown Gramm challenged U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen in the Democratic primary in 1976 and was soundly defeated, winning only 29% of the vote. Two years later, he bounced back and won a House seat as a Democrat.

After Reagan was elected in 1980, however, Gramm began casting his lot with the Republicans, managing to put his name on the Gramm-Latta bill that cut taxes and social spending while raising military outlays, the symbol of Reaganomics in 1981.

Berated by fellow Democrats as a traitor and accused of spying for the White House, Gramm was ousted from his seat on the House Budget Committee. After reelection as a Democrat in 1982, he resigned from Congress, switched parties and easily won a new term as a Republican in a special election.

“I had to choose between (Democratic Speaker Thomas P.) (Tip) O’Neill and y’all, and I chose y’all,” he told Texas voters in his down-home style.

Two years later, the GOP newcomer startled political observers by winning a U.S. Senate seat, then dazzled the Washington Establishment by leading a successful fight for the Gramm-Rudman law, co-authored by Republican Warren B. Rudman of New Hampshire, that required automatic spending cuts if Congress failed to meet deficit-reduction targets.

The law eventually fell into disfavor because it encouraged accounting gimmickry rather than true budget savings. Even so, Gramm developed a reputation as a can-do legislator.

Two years ago, he won the coveted spot of chairman of the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, which put him in charge of fund raising and recruiting challengers to Democrats. He says that he has raised more funds than any of his predecessors from a record 1 million contributors, but declines to predict how GOP Senate candidates will fare in this uncertain political year.

Immodestly, Gramm once said: “I want to make sure we’ve changed government forever. If I don’t do it, it may not get done.”

A friend of his, former Texas Democratic Rep. Marvin Leath, said Gramm should never be underestimated, adding: “No. 1, he’s smarter than you are. No. 2, he’s meaner than a junkyard dog.”

With a tight grin, Gramm said he would prefer to focus on No. 1. But he added: “I’d rather be admired than loved.”

Gramm Profile

Here is some background on Sen. Phil Gramm:

Age: 50

Education: BA and Ph.D., University of Georgia

Career: Former economics professor at Texas A&M; University; served in House, 1979-85; Senate, 1985-

Achievements: Co-authored the Gramm-Rudman deficit reduction plan; won a landslide reelection in 1990; increasingly is mentioned as a presidential prospect for 1996.

Critics say: He takes credit for federal projects in Texas while building a budget-cutting reputation in Washington.

Supporters say: Gramm champions the cause of working people.

Source: Politics in America