Convention Notebook : Dukakis Is Bigger Than Life in Atlanta

Michael S. Dukakis is a big man on the streets of Atlanta--bigger than even he might think.

The “Pose With the President” folks, whose life-size cardboard cutouts provide commoners with $6 photo evidence of buddying up to the big guys, have a confession to make:

Their cardboard model of Jesse Jackson is to scale, but that of Dukakis is actually an inch taller than the real Duke, who is 5-foot-8. Said photo vendor James Lane of the marketing ploy: “If we had him his normal height, people would think our cutouts aren’t the real size.”

It wasn’t billed as a losers’ session, but Monday’s political seminar for 300 foreign visitors was presided over by defeated 1984 presidential nominee Walter F. Mondale and featured two 1988 also-rans, former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt and Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Jr.

“Hi,” said Gore. “I’m Al Gore, and I used to be the next President of the United States.”

Said Babbitt: “I ran as a prophet. And I was rewarded like most prophets. I was sent into exile to write my memoirs and come to conferences like this.”

And Mondale deadpanned that Babbitt “followed the Walter Mondale formula--candor on the need for new taxes. And, like Walter Mondale, Bruce has been back with his family for some time now.”

Normally, when the House of Representatives gives final passage to a bill, it is signed by the Speaker and sent to the President without fanfare. But the bill requiring employers to give 60 days’ notice prior to plant closings got an unusual, high-profile send-off Monday when Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) held an unprecedented public signing ceremony in Atlanta hours before the convention’s opening gavel.

The bill, passed separately after the trade bill to which it had been attached was vetoed, may bring on a veto override showdown when Congress reconvenes, and Democrats are convinced that their position on the issue will help win them blue-collar votes in November. Senate Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd (D-W. Va.) said the bill-signing ceremony was “a pleasure with a considerable amount of vengeance.”

And, just as the President does, Wright distributed souvenir bill-signing pens to Dukakis, Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and other dignitaries.

Delegates, beware: no credentials, no convention.

In a warning to fellow Coloradans, delegation Chairman Buie Seawell cautioned that, if lost, the coveted credentials that admit them to the convention hall won’t be replaced. And he advised delegates to lend credentials only to people they trust. “It sounds like an AIDS lecture,” Seawell acknowledged. “Only trade credentials with a known friend.”

Handbills for a “Faust for President” musical farce being staged in Atlanta this month say the critics adore it. The waggish flyers read:

“Wow! Bring a date!” --Gary Hart.

“Swell. My wife loved it”--Bob Dole.

“I only wish I had a part to play”--Jesse Jackson.

“I swear I knew nothing about it!”--George Bush.

“I felt like I knew it word for word!”--Joe Biden.

“Technically well-done! A miracle!”--Michael Dukakis.

Reporters covering Jesse Jackson rode the bus with the candidate from Chicago to Atlanta but thought transportation might improve once the choreography of the convention began.

Instead, they had to pile into yellow school buses, invariably finding themselves stuck in traffic miles behind the candidate’s motorcade.

On Monday, both press buses following Jackson to the Carter Presidential Center got lost, and one broke down. When 50 or so reporters and camera crews climbed into the surviving bus, they found it couldn’t make it up a few of Atlanta’s meek hills.

So, while the school bus wheezed and spewed gas fumes, the national press corps clambered up the hill. Counting down until the task of covering Jackson would be over, one tripod-toting network producer gasped: “Three more days.”

For at least some members of the California delegation, getting to the Democratic convention became unexpectedly difficult Sunday when a predawn scuffle aboard Eastern Flight 74 from San Francisco forced an unscheduled stop in Huntsville, Ala.

According to witnesses and police, the fight involved Eric Vernon, 38, of Hayward, son of California delegate Willa Vernon, and an Eastern Airlines flight steward.

Attorney Robert C. Cheasty, who was aboard the flight and who has offered to represent Vernon, said that the two apparently got into a disagreement over making change for a drink. “I was asleep,” Cheasty said, “then I turned around and saw Vernon in a headlock and getting beaten around the head.” Cheasty said one witness said that the flight attendant started the fight.

When the plane landed in Huntsville, sometime after 1:30 a.m., police officers came aboard and escorted Vernon off.

According to Frank Donaldson, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, fighting aboard an aircraft is a federal offense, punishable up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

But Donaldson said he has decided not to prosecute anyone involved. Nor will Bud Cramer, district attorney in Madison County.