Summons to North Oaks

By Ed Magnuson

Mondale seeks a running mate and party unity

Help Wanted: Someone "to advise the President from a national perspective, help break through the bureaucracy and solve complex problems, speak for the President on Capitol Hill and help advance his legislative program. Must be ready to assume the duties of the toughest job on earth." Applicants will be interviewed by Walter Mondale in North Oaks, Minn. By invitation only.

The Democratic Party's probable (and self-proclaimed) presidential candidate last week outlined his job description for a running mate, and the prime prospects awaited their pilgrimage to North Oaks. Despite the slightly imperious overtones of the summoning, it promises to be an ego trip for the invitees, who will bask in press attention and at least fleetingly enjoy the heady notion that he or she could be tapped for the nation's second-highest office. Walter Mondale, recalling his own trek to Plains, Ga., eight years ago, was following the same selection process that had taken him to the vice presidency and put him in a position to issue the invitations now.

New York Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro, who heads the party's platform committee, visited the St. Paul suburb on Saturday, ostensibly to talk about platform planks. She is to be followed this week by Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen and San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein.

The most intriguing question is whether Colorado Senator Gary Hart, who is having trouble adjusting to his apparent status as an also-ran, would take (or be offered) the No. 2 spot. His aides said it was unlikely he would submit to an interview process that smacked of supplication, but they were split on whether he ought to join the ticket if asked. Advisers Patrick Caddell, Kathy Bushkin and John McEvoy contend that Hart's future would best be served by becoming Mondale's partner in their party's challenge to Ronald Reagan, even if the effort fails. Oliver Henkel, Frank Mankiewicz and Jack Quinn still foresee the possibility that a political disaster could cripple Mon dale before the convention.

They want their man posi tioned to seize the moment by continuing his nomination battle at full steam.

According to a new Gallup poll, 59% of Democrats want a Mondale-Hart ticket, compared with only 27% who prefer Mondale with an other running mate. The same poll was bad news for the Hart advisers who still hope to draw delegates away from Mondale by arguing that the Senator would run a stronger race against Reagan. It showed the President ahead of Mondale, 53% to 44%, and leading Hart by virtually the same margin, 54% to 43%.

Hart did not seem anxious to pave the way for party unity when he appeared in Washington before Ferraro's platform committee. Although Hart did not mention Mondale, he urged the committee to reject "the traditional approach of some in our party who promise everything to everyone." He warned that "the Democratic Party cannot win if it is beholden to the old arrangements." Specifically, Hart opposed "a protectionist trade policy based on the proposed domestic content bill," which would require a share of American materials and labor in autos sold in the U.S. Mondale has firmly endorsed such legislation.

One of Hart's unity-minded advisers expressed disappointment in his candidate's platform rhetoric: "I don't under stand why he said those things. He's supposed to be running a reconciliation show now, but it's hard to recognize." More predictably, a Mondale aide complained: "Hart knows that a talk about the old arrangements is taken by everybody as code for the AFL-CIO leadership. It's like waving a red flag in front of them." The two campaign chiefs -- Henkel for Hart, Rob ert Beckel for Mondale-- held private conversations in search of a truce.

An even knottier problem, however, was the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has been alternately conciliatory and confrontational in both his private meetings and public statements. Jackson, who also met with Beckel last week, is annoyed that he has not had any private meetings with Mondale. After Jackson carried his complaints about "unfair" election practices to Capitol Hill, House Speaker Tip O'Neill somewhat grudgingly agreed to appoint a commission of congressional Democrats, chaired by Arizona's Morris Udall, to study the issues. Jackson argued once again, and validly, that the unfairness of the delegate selection was shown by the fact that he had received 21% of Democratic primary votes but won only about 8% of the delegates. In response to claims that the rules should not be changed after the game is over, Jackson huffed, "There is no statute of limitations on stealing."

Jackson seemed paradoxically uninterested in making a personal effort to change the rules. He indicated that he will carry on with his quixotic foreign policy ventures by leaving for Panama, Nicaragua and Cuba this Saturday, thus missing crucial meetings of the rules committee. Other black leaders will carry the case for strong platform planks on such issues as affirmative action in jobs and integration in public schools. "Jackson hasn't been talking about black issues," contends a black political scientist. "He's been talking about his issues."

Mondale last week showed a new willingness to distance himself from Jackson's delegate protest. "I think the rules are just fine," he said. were developed by a broad cross section of Democrats, and I intend to stick by them." He said he willing "to do many, many other things" to accommodate Jackson, "but not what's been suggested so far."

Mondale's unity drive fared much better with former pri mary foe George McGovern, who not only endorsed him but predicted that the Minnesotan might turn out to be "the best President since Franklin Roosevelt." That is the kind of talk Mondale would like to hear from all of his party's leaders.

--By Ed Magnuson.

Reported by David Beckwith/ Washington and Jack E. White with Jackson

With reporting by David Beckwith/ Washington and Jack E. White with Jackson