"FORGET ME; I DON'T MATTER." YOU SURE, ROSS?

By JEFFREY H. BIRNBAUM/DALLAS

Is Ross Perot mellowing with age, like most people do? No, sir. In an interview with TIME in his museum-like office last week, he lambasted House Republicans for playing a "shell game" with the Contract with America, blamed "idiots" in the Senate for scaring investment banker Felix Rohatyn away from the Federal Reserve Board and slammed lawmakers generally for playacting rather than attending to the nation's woes. "The strutting, the pouting. Congressmen standing on the steps of the Capitol, demonstrating this, demonstrating that," Perot says. "This is great for the evening news, but it does nothing to solve our nation's problems." His prescription: more civility in public discourse.

While Perot is true to form, even a bit crankier, his following is changing. For one thing, it's smaller. In the latest TIME/CNN Election Monitor, a continuing poll of registered voters, only 15% call themselves Perot supporters, down from 20% five months ago. He is losing support fastest among the affluent and educated, who also tend to vote the most. Independent voters, says a poll by the Pew Research Center, would now prefer a generic third-party candidate to the razor-tongue billionaire.

That's O.K., he responds. "Forget me; I don't matter." Except that during the interview, he repeatedly undercuts that assertion. He expresses mild resentment about doing all the "drudge work" of creating the Reform Party while others wait to take advantage of his handiwork. And he is openly bitter at personal attacks, like Republican editor William Kristol's suggestion that he is "not an entirely sane individual." Complains Perot: "Rather than solve problems, they want to destroy anybody who gets in their way."

Meanwhile, he's walking the walk of a contender. The Perot Reform Committee finances a salaried staff of 50 in Dallas and 50 in the field, with dozens of attorneys on retainer around the country. Perot keeps in the limelight: since the end of September he has done 84 radio interviews, 36 personal appearances in 18 states and 196 satellite linkups. All this promotes petition drives that have put his party on the ballot in eight states so far, with 23 more under way. The goal is all 50. Perot predicts his crusade could turn into an avalanche this time around. "Not only will we have a presidential candidate, we will also endorse candidates in every House and Senate race who are committed to our reforms," he says. "We can provide the swing votes to put all of them in office."

Trouble is, the Reform Party can't even find someone to run for its top slot--other than Perot. Last week the most likely alternative, former Republican Senator and independent Governor Lowell Weicker of Connecticut, said he would not run. Any Reform Party nominee would have to bring his own bankroll or rely on those dread special interests, since campaign-finance laws prohibit Perot from spending his billions on anyone for President but himself. That means the Reform Party may wind up being about Ross Perot after all.

--By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum/ Dallas. With reporting by Laurence I. Barrett/Washington

With reporting by Laurence I. Barrett/Washington