He Says Winner Will Lack ‘Serious Mandate’ : Bentsen Sees Harm in Brutal Campaign

CHICAGO —  Democratic vice presidential nominee Lloyd Bentsen warned Sunday that this year’s brutal campaign has so wounded both major party candidates that the ultimate winner will lack the “serious mandate” he needs to get his programs off to an easy start with Congress.

“Frankly, I don’t think either candidate has a serious mandate,” Bentsen said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” but he quickly added that his running mate, Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, “would have more of one” if elected than his Republican opponent, George Bush.

Bentsen has suggested in the past that hard feelings left over from this election would drastically shorten any “honeymoon” that Bush might expect to have with Congress, both houses of which are virtually certain to remain in Democratic control.

Loss of Clout

Sunday marked the first time, however, that Bentsen has acknowledged that Dukakis’ clout--even within his own party--also has been weakened by the blows he has suffered.

“I think that Michael Dukakis will not have as much of a mandate as he deserves, because it was difficult to get the issues across with all the clutter of negative advertising that he was being hit with,” Bentsen told reporters after the broadcast.

The result, he acknowledged, is that getting the Dukakis agenda through Congress would take “a lot more hard work, and a lot of swabbing that has to be done, but I think Michael Dukakis can do that.”

The three-term Texas senator added that, as vice president, he might be able to assist Dukakis by drawing upon his own reservoir of influence on Capitol Hill.

“I also believe that the two of us together--with me as vice president and the relationship I have with the Congress--that we will be able to get our legislative program through better than George Bush and Dan Quayle would.”

Claims Voter Swing

In the NBC appearance and during a subsequent interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Bentsen insisted that the electorate is moving in the Democrats’ direction.

If his ticket loses, as polls indicate it will, Bentsen is likely to be a major force in determining the success or failure of Bush’s legislative programs. Bentsen faces weak opposition in the simultaneous Senate reelection campaign he is waging in Texas. So, if Bush wins, Bentsen will return to the chairmanship of the powerful Senate Finance Committee.

Bentsen made it clear again Sunday that he will fight any Bush effort to lower the tax rate on capital gains, an issue under the Finance Committee’s jurisdiction.

Bentsen in the past has favored lowering the capital gains rate, which is the tax paid upon the sale of assets that have increased in value. He now argues that in the wake of the overall rate cuts included in 1986 tax code revision, the debt-burdened nation cannot afford another reduction in the capital gains tax.

No ‘Revenge’ Planned

Asked whether he might use his Senate post to settle the political score with Bush, Bentsen said: “We have too much at stake in this country to try to seek revenge or something like that. We’re on a mountain of debt, our budget deficit and our trade deficit, and those things just have to be turned around.

“I’d help him when I thought he was right, and I’d block him when I thought he was wrong,” Bentsen said.

After taping the television interviews here, Bentsen returned to Texas, where he will spend almost all the time that remains before the election Tuesday.

The Dukakis campaign insisted that its polls show him running less than 10 percentage points behind Bush in Texas, but independent surveys in recent days have found the margin almost double that.

At a rally in Corpus Christi, Bentsen said the Republicans’ last-minute flurry of attention to the state belies their assertions that Texas is all but won for them.