Once again, Gephardt's fate depends on Iowa vote

Dick Gephardt could play Bill Murray in the remake of Groundhog Day.

Here's a guy who has spent several decades pining for the presidency. Yet every time he stumps for the job, it seems he's stuck in the same time and place, waking at dawn somewhere in Iowa, hauling himself across the barren plains to community centers and bake shops and union halls, hoping that this time - finally! - his candidacy will catch fire.

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For starters, a lot of Iowa Democrats persist in seeing him as yesterday's news, as frayed as an old pair of sneakers. They note that he's still relying on the same core supporters who buoyed his bid in 1988 - the industrial union workers, who love his attacks on free trade and who show up en masse at rallies to chant his name for the TV cameras - and somehow, to the skeptics, that old alliance makes Gephardt look like a captive of special interests.

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A lot of these folks, who can talk politics the way baseball junkies talk box scores, have very long memories. That's not necessarily great for Gephardt, either. They hear Gephardt lambaste President Bush's tax cuts, and some remember that, 22 years ago, he voted in favor of Ronald Reagan's tax cuts. When he declared in a Wednesday speech that "I believe in standing for something," one listener snorted. Then she whispered that Gephardt had renounced his antiabortion convictions when he first decided to seek the presidency. (She was right. In a 1984 letter to his antiabortion allies, Gephardt promised: "I intend to remain steadfast in that issue.")


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