Rollins Trips on an Occupational Hazard : Politics: Consultants, in their self-made new prominence, want to be known for the winning strategy; forget the candidate.

It may be truly said of political consultant Edward J. Rollins that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed are kings. Rollins has been known as the best of the breed, so there’s considerable irony in the outpouring of indignation over his alleged efforts to discourage black turnout in the New Jersey gubernatorial race. Rollins’ candidate, Republican Christine Todd Whitman, came from behind in the closing days of the campaign to unseat Gov. James J. Florio, a Democrat.

What adds to the unseemliness of the spectacle is that Rollins’ most splenetic detractors are other political consultants. Cannibalism, in addition to indiscretion, seems to be a characteristic of the breed.

Political consulting is the most dubious invention of modern politics. With it has come the guileful practice of spin-doctoring and the malign axiom that all campaigns must be negative if they are to reach the intellectually comatose American voter. If the hired guns did little more than lurk in the shadows and perform their hocus-pocus with polls, focus-groups and 30-second TV spots, their influence would be bad enough, but many of them have seized the limelight and made themselves major political figures in their own right.

Truth be told, they probably feel that they are the real political geniuses and their clients, the candidates, are just talking dogs. The candid Rollins admitted as much in an interview with Jane Mayer and Doyle McManus, authors of “Landslide,” an account of the 1984 campaign. Ronald Reagan, Rollins said, “is the perfect candidate. He does whatever you want him to do. And he does it superbly well.” Could Rollins possibly be alone in his view that the perfect candidate is an engaging but intellectually vacuous cardboard cutout? I doubt it.

Candidates who honestly want to run high-minded campaigns occasionally try to shut down the slime machine. Gov.-elect Whitman attempted it early on in the campaign when she offered Florio an invitation to take the high road. George Bush wanted to campaign on a more elevated plane in 1988 but was persuaded by Lee Atwater and Roger Ailes to impugn Michael Dukaksis’ patriotism and commitment to law and order. Atwater’s deathbed recantation of the Willie Horton school of campaigning might have served as a cautionary tale for others in the profession, but if so, its effect was only momentary.

That particular residue of the 1988 campaign floated to the surface this year in New Jersey, when Whitman was compelled to fire a campaign consultant after it was revealed that he was one of the creators of the Willie Horton ad. This incident illustrated two things about consultants and their impact on campaigns. The first is that the truly egregious examples of negative campaigning do return to haunt their authors. The second is that consultants have become such prominent players in campaigns that they and their past performances can actually be issues in elections.

Their involvement is certainly has become big news. When consultant James Carville, fresh from his success with the Clinton campaign (but unsuccessful last April in trying to get Assemblyman Richard Katz elected mayor of Los Angeles) agreed to work for Florio’s reelection, the governor seemed a much more formidable figure.

For a distressingly large number of consultants, winning is an inadequate advertisement of their political wizardry. They need all the world to know that the candidate was just an empty suit (or dress) and that the victory should be credited to them. This appears to be the impulse that motivated Rollins to make his off-the-cuff remarks about suborning black ministers.

Why do consultants do this? Part of it may be a personality disorder specific to the profession: a compulsive appetite for public recognition. A more likely explanation is simply to drum up business.

The real blame for the excesses of consultants lies not with them, but with the candidates who lack the fortitude to stand up to these metaphysicians of flimflam. Perhaps if candidates were required to make their own media buys or hire a few competent graduate students to conduct their polls, it might send a message to voters that people who are capable of managing their own campaigns might also be competent to govern.