The Rebirth of John Sasso

HELP WANTED: Savvy, hard-nosed strategist desperately needed to jump-start stalled campaign. Experience in overcoming innate caution of button-down Greek candidate a must. Prior misdemeanors no problem. For the right stuff, we will take public guff. Contact Dukakis campaign.

That job description could apply to only one person: John Sasso, 41, the shrewd political operative with an engaging smile and an easy pat-on-the-back manner. For eleven months Sasso had been in purgatory, defrocked as Dukakis' campaign manager for his role in preparing the plagiarism videotape that helped drive Joseph Biden out of the Democratic race. Dukakis had promised that Sasso would play no further role in his campaign. But each time Dukakis stumbled there were new rumors of a resurrection. Last week, as the overconfidence of August gave way to the desperation of September, the summons finally came. "Almost a year ago, John Sasso made a very serious mistake," Dukakis told reporters. "He has paid the price."

So had the candidate whom Sasso had, perhaps too loyally, served. In arranging for an emotional homecoming, the self-reliant Dukakis all but acknowledged that Sasso is the indispensable man. The team of Chairman Paul Brountas and Campaign Manager Susan Estrich had proved adept at directing a safe, within-the-speed-limit strategy that befitted the candidate's personality. But since the Republican Convention, they had been pinned down by the furious fusillades from George Bush. There was no effective counterattack and no coherent battle plan -- just a forlorn candidate clinging to the shopworn themes that had carried him through the primaries.

Last Tuesday night Dukakis summoned Brountas and Sasso to his home in Brookline, Mass. By the end of the evening the decision was made to welcome the errant surrogate son back into the fold. Sasso was awarded the purposely ambiguous title of vice chairman of the campaign. But in effect the campaign structure was altered to allow each member of the ruling troika to do what he or she does best. Sasso will become the dominant figure, mapping strategy and massaging Democratic political leaders. Brountas, who combines political inexperience with mature judgment and long friendship with Dukakis, will provide the balm of lawyerly calm wherever needed. And Estrich, who insists she is "delighted" by Sasso's return, remains in charge of the day-to-day campaign.

Sasso engineered Dukakis' comeback crusade as Governor in 1982, and the emotional bond between the totally dissimilar men remains strong. Though far from an articulate intellectual, Sasso has a gift for analytic thinking. A street kid from New Jersey, he is canny about people and comfortable with concepts and broad strategies. Through his two national campaigns, with Ted Kennedy and Geraldine Ferraro, he developed an army of political contacts, and he deals easily with politicians.

There are certain to be Republican charges that Dukakis has turned his campaign over to a certified dirty trickster. In truth, Sasso's misdeeds were exaggerated by the Goody Two Shoes moralism of the early Democratic contests. The Biden videotape merely coupled the Senator's public words with those of his rhetorical twin, British Labor Party Leader Neil Kinnock. A more serious breach was Sasso's ill-advised effort to keep the truth about his role from Dukakis. But there is a long political tradition of forgiving transgressions -- especially when the candidate doing the forgiving suddenly finds himself lagging in the polls.