Rollins’ Comeback Turns Into a Nosedive : Politics: Consultant who helped N.J. governor-elect testifies that he lied about suppressing voter turnout to irk rival. Talk has cost him campaign, TV jobs.

In a profession where candor and cockiness can mean riches and fame, outspoken political consultant Edward J. Rollins has found that too much of both can lead to the opposite: a breathtaking dive into oblivion.

Rollins, who helped elect Republican Christine Todd Whitman this month as governor of New Jersey, was dumped this week by one of his most prominent clients, Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Barbara Hafer. Another potential client, New Jersey Assembly Speaker Garabed (Chuck) Haytaian, has decided against hiring Rollins to run his possible Senate bid. And even NBC-TV’s “Today” show accepted his resignation as one of its two weekly political commentators.

The punishments are the latest visited on Rollins since he told reporters at a breakfast meeting last week that Whitman’s campaign paid what is known in political circles as “street money” to black clergy and elected leaders to dissuade them from getting out the black vote and thus helping to reelect Democratic Gov. James J. Florio.

Amid expressions of outrage from Whitman, black leaders and Democrats, Rollins subsequently insisted that he had misspoken and that voter suppression never occurred.

In the latest turn, Rollins spent 7 1/2 hours Friday giving sworn testimony to lawyers from the Democratic National Committee.

Rollins said claims about suppressing the black vote were made up to try to get at rival James Carville, who managed Florio’s campaign, according to a transcript of the sworn deposition released Friday night.

“I can never make up for what I have done in my actions of two minutes of pure, unadulterated (nonsense),” Rollins said. “I will pay a price for the rest of my life, and even that will not be sufficient to what I have done.”

He testified that after he told reporters about suppressing the vote that he expected them to call Carville and say: “ ‘Rollins kicked your ass . . . and here’s how he did it.’ ”

“That was my motivation. That was my game,” Rollins said. “I repeated rumors and innuendos that I heard in the course of the campaign. It made for great stories and it has damaged me in great places.”

Rollins and Carville are nationally known campaign strategists. Rollins managed Ronald Reagan’s 1984 landslide victory, and Carville managed President Clinton’s 1992 campaign.

New Jersey Republican Committee attorney Ted Geiser said that Rollins told the lawyers under oath: “ ‘I lied from top to bottom,’ ” about suppressing black voter turnout.

Rollins also testified Thursday before a federal grand jury in Newark, N.J., but no details were available.

Regardless of the outcome of any possible legal cases, Rollins’ credibility has suffered deeply. As one more measure of that, he has become the brunt of jokes on late-night television.

“If you’re interested in thinking about suicide, you call Dr. Jack Kevorkian,” David Letterman said last week. “If you’re thinking about committing political suicide, you call . . . Ed Rollins.”

This is not the first time that Rollins’ reputation for perhaps being too candid with reporters has caused him trouble, although this time is by far the most serious. Nor is he the first political consultant to damage his career by becoming too controversial.

Roger Ailes, the man who made attack TV commercials to help George Bush defeat Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis in the 1988 presidential election, found in subsequent campaigns that his reputation for negative tactics made him such a political issue that his clients were hurt.

By last year, Ailes stopped working as a political consultant altogether. He is now executive producer of conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh’s television program and president of CNBC, NBC’s business and talk cable channel.

A little more than a month ago, Rollins was viewed by political seers in Pennsylvania as someone who would lend prestige to Hafer’s gubernatorial bid. In the early stages of a campaign in a crowded field--Hafer faces two tough primary opponents--politicians’ stature can grow simply by virtue of the political guns they hire.

But Tuesday, Hafer issued a two-paragraph press release saying: “Yesterday, I asked Ed Rollins to withdraw from my campaign. We mutually agreed that for us both this is best.

“I do not know exactly what happened in the New Jersey election. But Ed has assured me no wrongdoing occurred. The tragedy of these events underscores politics today--the tearing down of reputations, institutions and the political process. I’m very saddened for all involved.”

Rollins signed on with Hafer in September for $10,000 a month.

Last week, another politician, Haytaian, New Jersey’s powerful Assembly speaker, similarly announced that “given the situation, I have no intention of hiring Mr. Rollins.” In September, Rollins was hired to replace Ailes as a weekly commentator on the “Today” show, paired with Democrat Bob Squiers.

Rollins had done just three weeks worth of shows, at $500 a week, when the controversy erupted. NBC officials expressed their concern and on Monday Rollins agreed to resign and absolve NBC of all contract obligations.

“Clearly, the incident raised questions as to how credible he would be in this role as analyst,” NBC News Vice President Bill Wheatley said.

“He feels terrible,” said one colleague who has talked to Rollins. “He knows this is self-inflicted.”

Rollins issued a statement through his lawyers: “I deeply regret the controversy and trouble my initial statements created. I want to apologize again to Mrs. Whitman, the African-American community and the voters of New Jersey. Soon I hope to have the opportunity to convey personally my sincere apologies for the trouble I have caused them.”

After he ran Reagan’s 1984 campaign and served as his political director, Rollins struck a $1-million deal with the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee to create a Republican majority in the House.

But in the fall of 1990 Rollins began encouraging Republicans in writing to condemn President Bush for raising taxes. After Republicans lost several seats, Rollins was fired in January, 1991, two years before his contract was up.

Rollins has a penchant for skewering members of his party. He once noted that Reagan’s daughter Maureen “had the highest negatives of any (Senate) candidate I have ever seen.”

As would-be members of the Bush campaign team were jostling for positions in the summer of 1991, Rollins told reporters that Bush’s then-powerful chief of staff, John H. Sununu, was “an amateur politician” who “sees himself as one of America’s great political geniuses.”

To no one’s surprise, Rollins did not become a key member of Bush’s reelection team.