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Subject: Uncensored Schaefer Is Uncensured; Top Democrat Survives His Backing of
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 92 09:22:42 EST
Message-ID: <9.1992Nov8.092243@AmeriCast.com>

Uncensored Schaefer Is Uncensured; Top Democrat Survives His
Backing of Bush<By Richard Tapscott=Washington Post Staff Writer=

BALTIMORE, Nov. 7 - Maryland Gov. William Donald Schaefer escaped
essentially unscathed at the hands of his fellow Democrats today
as the State Democratic Central Committee declined to censure the
governor for endorsing President Bush four days before the elec-
tion.

Though party leaders individually branded Schaefer "disloyal,"
the committee narrowly rejected a resolution saying that he had
"relinquished his honorary title as titular leader of our state
party" by endorsing the Republican president rather than Demo-
cratic challenger Bill Clinton, the eventual winner.

"We all know how we feel, but you praise your children in public
and scold them in private," said Kevin Kamenetz, chairman of the
Baltimore County Democratic Party, arguing that the party should
not further air its dirty laundry.

The resolution was defeated by a vote of 186 to 171, but drew
strong support from the Washington suburbs. Committee members
from the Baltimore area were overwhelmingly opposed to censuring
Schaefer, who was the city's mayor for 15 years.

Montgomery County Democratic Chairman Michael Gildea said it will
be difficult to enforce party discipline in the future "if we let
the man at the top walk away from his commitment to the party."
Letting Schaefer off the hook was a "mistake," said Prince
George's County Chairman Gerard T. Evans. "But Schaefer's a
unique individual, and I don't think we can expect this kind of
behavior from our top elected officials in the future."

Some of the white-hot rhetoric and hard feelings of a week ago
had dissipated, several Democrats said, with the realization that
Schaefer's endorsement had made no difference in the election's
outcome. Among the states, Clinton's victory margin in Maryland
was exceeded only by his margin in his native Arkansas.

None of the criticism, even from some of his closest political
allies, seemed likely to have any effect on Schaefer, who said
pointedly this week that he had "no apologies" for the endorse-
ment.

Only people who do not know the iconoclastic habits of William
Donald Schaefer were greatly surprised in the first place. But
that didn't keep one county-level party official from expressing
it indelicately: "This is the first time I've seen a rat jump on
a sinking ship."

Schaefer's endorsement of his friend Bush, however, is only a
change of degree in his unorthodox political behavior.

In 1982, when he was mayor of Baltimore, Schaefer all but en-
dorsed Republican Robert A. Pascal in the gubernatorial race
rather than the eventual Democratic winner, Harry Hughes.

Pascal, now Schaefer's appointments secretary, said such behavior
is refreshing. "People keep saying they want public officials to
be honest and candid," Pascal said. With Schaefer, he added,
"they got honest and candid. They want officials to take posi-
tions.  They got it."

This year, Schaefer said at a public forum that Rep. Helen Delich
Bentley (R-Md.) deserved reelection, but aides said he didn't
consider his remark an endorsement.

Ten days before the election, at a Montgomery County Chamber of
Commerce luncheon, Schaefer went out of his way to praise another
Maryland Republican, Rep. Constance A. Morella, causing some
Democrats in the audience to groan.

For many irate Democrats, the Bush endorsement reopened a not-
so-old wound: congressional redistricting.

Democratic legislative leaders had concocted a redistricting plan
that would have pitted Bentley against freshman Rep. Wayne T.
Gilchrest (R). But Schaefer balked, forcing the drawing of lines
that put  Rep. Tom McMillen (D) in the same district with Gil-
chrest, thereby protecting Bentley. McMillen lost to Gilchrest
Tuesday.

Schaefer has puzzled people many times before with his impetuous
antics. But he evidently miscalculated the depth of displeasure
his Bush endorsement would cause among Democrats, one of whom
suggested he change his party registration because he is now
"politically homeless."

"I was surprised by the viciousness of the attack," Schaefer said
the day after the election. "They felt anyone who's a Democrat
would be better."

Yet Schaefer claimed not to be moved by criticism that streamed
in from Maryland Democrats, with the exception of one he said he
"greatly respected." Schaefer declined to name the individual,
but aides said it was either Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, who called
the endorsement "regrettable" and "wrong," or Sen. Paul S.  Sar-
banes, who proclaimed himself "sad for Governor Schaefer that his
judgment is so clouded."

Pamela J. Kelly, a political adviser and Schaefer aide for 13
years, said the governor was hurt by such criticism, particularly
because he helped raise $100,000 for the coordinated Democratic
campaign in Maryland and gave several members of his staff free
rein to volunteer in the Clinton-Gore effort.

Yet Kelly was not informed or consulted before Schaefer decided
to fly to St. Louis on the Friday before the election to endorse
Bush.  "I would have tried to talk him out of it," Kelly said.

A lifelong Democrat, the 71-year-old Schaefer has never been much
of a party man. And though he has the liberal heart of most big-
city mayors, he also felt generational kinship to the 68-year-old
Bush, mentioning last week that both had served in the armed
forces during World War II, a veiled criticism of Clinton's non-
service during the Vietnam War.Staff writer Charles Babington
contributed to this report.<02:11 11-086C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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