By John F. Harris
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 19, 2004; Page A10

PLAINS, Ga., Jan. 18 -- Jimmy Carter spent much of the past quarter-century as a pariah among fellow Democrats. Presidential candidates averted their gaze from the single term of his presidency, which ended in a landslide defeat at the hands of Ronald Reagan. Party leaders squirmed over how much time to allot him at party conventions. In the Clinton administration, national security officials rolled their eyes in exasperation at his free-lance foreign policy ventures.

But presidential reputations move in cycles. Today, the former outcast was hailed as a hero by former Vermont governor Howard Dean. No longer shunned by politicians, Carter said he was flattered by the attention for a "has-been politician" -- but he also seemed eager to ensure that Dean did not take liberties in his pursuit.

At an appearance here on Main Street in the Georgia hamlet Carter made famous, the former president praised the Vermonter's "courageous and outspoken posture" against what he assailed as "a completely unnecessary and unjust war" in Iraq. He introduced Dean as "my friend, our visitor and a fellow Christian." But twice Carter emphasized that he was not making an endorsement. Indeed, he said he was eager to play host to other Democratic candidates in Plains, and worship with them at the Maranatha Baptist Church, as he did this morning with Dean.

The candidate made a large investment in coming here, taking nearly 24 hours of premium campaign time away from Iowa on the final weekend before Monday's caucus vote so he could listen to Carter's regular Sunday-school sermon and later make a joint appearance. As Dean aides had portrayed it earlier, the Carter appearance would be an embrace stopping just shy of endorsement.

As it happened, the appearance seemed just shy of an embrace -- more like a squeeze of the elbow and a peck on the cheek.

Pressed in recent interviews about why he would leave Iowa at crunch time, Dean said he could not turn down an invitation to appear with a former president he admires. But when a visitor to the Maranatha church -- thousands come from out of town annually to hear Carter's Sunday-morning homilies -- thanked Carter for inviting Dean, Carter quickly interjected "I did not invite him," before adding "I'm glad he came."

"He called me on the phone and said he'd like to worship with me," Carter explained to reporters before the church service began. The appearance was originally slated for Jan. 4, but an Iowa debate that afternoon made out-of-state travel impossible for Dean, and this was the only alternative left in January, said Chip Carter, the former president's son and a Dean backer. The former president said he has visited with retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark and hopes he will again.

At the time Dean's visit was arranged, the apparent logic was that appearing with Carter would bolster Dean's antiwar credentials, advance what Dean has said is his plan to more openly promote his religious devotion and help create a mood of inevitability around his candidacy. Back then, it was not expected that he would be in a tight four-way race, scrambling for every last vote.

Whatever diffidence Carter was projecting, there does seem to be a genuine affinity between Dean and Carter. This year's candidate credits Carter with being his inspiration in politics, prompting him to work at age 29 as a leading volunteer for Carter's reelection effort in Vermont in 1980. That was the year that Carter was challenged by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.), who was representing the liberal wing of the Democratic Party in a way similar to how Dean now claims to represent the "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party." But Dean on Saturday said it was only natural that he was drawn to Carter. "This may surprise you, but I'm a centrist Democrat, and I have been for a while."

Dean said he also admires Carter's doctrine of giving human rights a central role in foreign policy.

Admiration for Carter's human rights stands and post-presidential peace missions has been emerging for years, culminating in the Nobel Peace Prize he won last year. What is novel about Dean's campaign this year is the effort to associate himself with the political side of Carter's legacy. Carter's long-shot candidacy, as an obscure former governor, took root with a victory in Iowa 28 years ago, and is the model for Dean's candidacy.

Jody Powell, a former Carter press secretary and longtime associate, said it is gratifying to see Carter the politician start to get his historical due from Dean and others. "For those of us who worked for him, it's certainly noted," Powell said, adding that the current mood among Democrats of "alienation and disgust with what's going on in the nation's capital" may well be similar to the post-Watergate mood in 1976.

For his part, Carter said he identifies with Dean's "outspoken nature, sometimes saying things which might have to be retracted."

It was merely coincidence, Carter said, that his Sunday-school lesson was about the Book of Job, which Dean said recently was among his favorite biblical stories (though he initially incorrectly attributed it to the New Testament). Carter said if Dean continues to do well -- thus becoming the inevitable target of scrutiny and accusations -- he may become still more appreciative of the long-suffering Job. "After I won in Iowa," he recalled, "I understood what Job was talking about."