Harkin, Shedding the Critic’s Role, Endorses Clinton : Campaign: The Arkansas governor winds up his day in New York in a shouting match with an AIDS protester.

NEW YORK —  Bill Clinton’s day began on a high note Thursday with an endorsement from a former rival, but later deteriorated into a shouting match when an AIDS protester accused him of “dying of ambition.”

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, who during his own campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination called Clinton a “warmed-over Republican,” endorsed the Arkansas governor. He said that his past criticism was “water under the bridge” and likened Clinton to former Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy.

Clinton’s blowup occurred at a $250-a-head fund-raiser in Manhattan, when members from ACT-UP interrupted his speech and accused him of not doing enough to stem the AIDS epidemic in his home state. Then, when one man--identified as Bob Rafsky--made the “dying of ambition” remark, an obviously angry Clinton shouted:

“If I were dying of ambition, I wouldn’t have stood up and put up with all this crap I’ve put up with over the past six months. I’m sick and tired of people who don’t know me making those snotty-nosed remarks. . . . There are other people on the ballot; go get them.

“I’ve had about enough of this. All of this business about I’m articulate and I’m slick. That’s bull. . . . I don’t like it when Jerry Brown does it, and I don’t like it when ACT-UP does it. . . .

“We’ve got to go back to putting some values on the integrity of people’s lives. . . . Instead of attacking people, go out and ask what we can do in common to save people’s lives. I want you to live.”

As he has in the past, Clinton said he would support the recommendations of the President’s Commission on AIDS, and would appoint an official to oversee the response to the epidemic.

Ironically, Harkin himself was the indirect trigger for one of Clinton’s earlier outbursts of temper. Last month, after a reporter told him--erroneously--that the Rev. Jesse Jackson was about to endorse Harkin, Clinton angrily told an aide that Jackson had stabbed him in the back. Clinton thought he had waited till the interview was over, but he was still being filmed and recorded.

Harkin had briefly tried to make an issue of Clinton’s temper, telling South Carolina voters: “What we want in a President is someone who won’t fly off the handle at a rumor.” Despite Harkin’s efforts, Clinton won South Carolina, and Harkin lost so badly that he dropped out of the race.

On Thursday, however, Harkin had only compliments for his former rival. “The differences between Bill and me are minuscule compared to our differences with George Bush, and that’s what’s important,” he said.

Harkin dropped out of the presidential race on March 9, citing a lack of funds. He won three state caucuses--in Iowa, Idaho and Minnesota--but no primaries, thereby forfeiting his access to federal matching funds.

After Harkin made his endorsement in Rochester, he and Clinton traveled to Long Island and appeared together at Temple Beth El in Long Beach. There, Clinton sought to seize the character issue that has dogged his campaign and turn it against his remaining rival, former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr.

Referring to Brown’s proposal for a 13% flat tax and a 13% value-added tax to replace the entire federal tax system, Clinton said: “You know, some of my critics say that I’m slick. . . . (But) we could grease the wheels of the Long Island Railroad from now to Kingdom Come with the slickness it would take to shove (Brown’s tax plan) down the throats of the American people.”

Clinton also read a statement made on the Senate floor earlier in the day by Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.).

Moynihan attacked Brown’s plan because it would substitute the flat tax and value-added tax for the entire federal tax structure, including income, corporate, estate and Social Security taxes. This, Moynihan said, would endanger Social Security itself.

“If you eliminate the Social Security payroll tax and treat Social Security as part of general revenue, you pull out the cornerstone of the Social Security system,” Moynihan said. “Take away payroll contributions and Social Security becomes welfare.”

The April 7 New York primary, with 244 convention delegates at stake, is considered critical for both candidates. Clinton needs a victory to preserve his standing as the front-runner after finishing second behind Brown in Connecticut this week; the former California governor needs another win to maintain his momentum.

Brown, meanwhile, traveled to Wisconsin, which also votes April 7. Brown has predicted he will win both states; in Wisconsin, 82 delegates are up for grabs.

Brown spent a good deal of his day defending his tax proposals, which he contends are fairer than the current tax system. He says the current tax code is riddled with loopholes and only the rich can afford the best tax dodges. But in Wisconsin, he found some voters unimpressed.

At a labor rally in Racine, John Omstrom stood outside the union hall and helped hold up a sign that read, “Flat tax fraud from the man on the moon,” a reference to the “Gov. Moonbeam” moniker Brown’s critics once used.

“I’m not making it now because I’m earning minimum wage,” said Omstrom, a 35-year-old apprentice mechanic. “Why should I pay the same rate as (President) George Herbert Walker Bush?”

But Bruce Crosby, 41, said Brown’s message hit the mark with him and other workers in the state. “He understands that the political system is corrupt and he’s man enough to take on the party leaders and to tell them to give up their silver spoons to rebuild America with the people.”

Brown, responding to questions about Harkin’s endorsement of Clinton, accused the former candidate of shelving the angry-man identity he used during his aborted campaign and closing ranks with the Democratic Establishment.

“When you run a frontal assault on what you call a decrepit and corrupt status quo that no longer serves the American people, you can’t be surprised if people in that neighborhood band together in a mutual protection defense one more time,” Brown said.

Harkin’s endorsement had been rumored for days, and some of his former supporters were stunned even before the announcement.

Kevin Gray, who served as political director for Harkin’s Southern campaign, said he was heartbroken because he had hoped the senator would endorse Brown.

Stewart reported from New York and Fulwood from Wisconsin.