JERRY BROWN PURSUES SEARCH AND DESTROY MISSION

Jerry Brown finished second in the Michigan primary and finished off Paul Tsongas as well. In the language of the Vietnam War, Brown, like Pat Buchanan, is a "search and destroy" candidate. He careens from one issue to the next, seeking targets of opportunity wherever he can find them. Brown is uninhibited by basic facts, elemental truth or previously expressed positions. His instincts drive him to divide and lose.

Brown's meteoric rise in government in California as a very young man was attributable solely to the enormous popularity of his father Pat, a political folk hero to California Democrats. When convenient, Jerry was more than willing to use his father's name and popularity. But once elected governor, he made it clear that he was repulsed by his father's political style and wished old dad would fade away and be quiet. The best he could say for his father was, "I guess I am more like my mother." Jerry, a former seminarian, has a religious bent that does not include gratitude as an ingredient.

Brown attacked Hillary Clinton for the nature of her Little Rock law practice based on a Washington Post article he hadn't read. He made a flying-blind attack on allegations not even contained in that article. Jerry has a religious bent that does not include truth as an ingredient.

As the heir of a prominent California political family, Brown was born to travel on the "inside," but for now positions as the apostle of the "outside." As governor of California, he was a record political fundraiser in his time. Most recently, as chairman of the California Democratic State Committee, he made a career of putting the heavy bite on fat cats to fill his party's coffers. He now dismisses all of that. It's coffers to pauper as Brown now denounces fat cats and touts the moral virtues of his 800-number. Jerry has a religious bent that does not include consistency of principle as an ingredient.

While governor of California, Brown extolled the virtues of his state as an export market (primarily to Asia) and the prosperity generated by international trade. As a presidential candidate, he waxed eloquent in down-and-out Michigan as an unabashed protectionist picking up the "American First" theme that Sen. Tom Harkin played until his time ran out. Jerry has a religious bent that does not include steadfastness of purpose as an ingredient.

Brown is a political mugger lying in wait. Pat Buchanan professes a cause and pugnaciously sticks to it. While Buchanan, like all politicians, has tailored some of his positions to the temper of the times, his fundamental views have not changed since he supported Goldwater over Johnson. Jerry Brown, on the other hand, professes a cause only for brief moments in time. He is an intellectual chameleon of the most opportunistic sort.

Both Brown and Buchanan view themselves as front runners for 1996. For them 1992 is Spring Training. Both think they are tuned into the politics of tomorrow, the politics of resentment, anger and lost faith. Buchanan sees a tidal wave of revulsion sweeping from the right and Brown sees the same tidal wave, but from the left. Both write off Bill Clinton as goods damaged beyond repair. They sense that four more years of George Bush will leave the country knee-deep in frustration and discontent and ripe for a wrenching change.