Smear Campaign

BRAZILIA 'I'M NO QUITTER,' BRAZIL'S PREZ SAYS President Fernando Collor de Mello has angrily denied accusations he knew about alleged high-level corruption and said he would not resign. In a breakfast meeting with 12 newspaper editors, Collor complained of a smear campaign and rejected rumors he might step down, according to one participant. "It's incredible that anyone could imagine I'm a quitter," Collor said.

The kid was standing on 126th Street, passing out the fliers that have lately flooded Harlem with warnings that a soda called Tropical Fantasy contains a secret drug that sterilizes black men. Eric Miller shook his head, walked over to the kid and asked why. Because a man was paying him $5, the kid said with a shrug, and the man was paying a bunch of kids. This is as close as Miller, who owns Brooklyn Bottling Corp., has come to identifying the mysterious party who for the past four weeks has been trying to put him out of business with a racial smear job: Some guy with a pocketful of fives.

We've always taken a fairly permissive stance toward negative campaign ads, figuring that's part of the rough and tumble of the democratic process. But sometimes, a candidate - or a political party - just goes too far. Here's a case in point. In the 173d legislative district in Northeast Philadelphia, Democrat Mike McGeehan and Republican Joe McHugh are in a tough fight for the House seat being vacated by Rep. Fran Weston. The Republicans are naturally doing whatever they can to identify the Democrat with Wilson Goode, who's not a popular man in the Northeast.

The Army is investigating allegations that Action Manufacturing Co. of Philadelphia, which recently shut down production and laid off its workforce of nearly 500, may have illegally sold government-owned ordnance materials overseas. Lt. Col. Robert Flocke, a spokesman for the Army Criminal Investigation Division in Washington, said yesterday that investigators would examine allegations that the company might have committed larceny by selling materials overseas to which the U.S. government had claim.

Todd Gitlin will never be president. He has uttered the "M" word. Worse yet, he says he liked marijuana. He liked all the "jabbering and giggling," and he liked the way his taste buds drew him to M&Ms and whipped cream. He liked how the lyrics of Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" seemed to grow more profound, and he liked how the afternoons and evenings seemed to stretch. But that was two decades ago, long before Gitlin became a sociology professor and author of books on politics and culture - long before he began to realize that the era that had nurtured his generation was, and would remain, anathema to the millions who never shared the dreams or joined the party.

The race for the lone open seat on the Warminster Board of Supervisors was hardly a contest. Supervisors Chairman William T. Davis, a Republican, easily outdistanced Democratic challenger Glenn Doyle, who did not actively campaign after winning his party's endorsement in May. Davis captured 65 percent of the vote. By retaining his seat, Davis preserved the Republican's 3-2 majority on the Board of Supervisors. "I'm very happy," said Davis, 43. "With this kind of margin, the voters are saying they are satisfied with my performance over the last six years.

For the second day in a row, Lt. Gov. William W. Scranton 3d yesterday charged his Democratic rival for governor with running a "smear campaign. " Scranton demanded that Robert P. Casey retract his latest television ad, which says Scranton voted against public hearings on regulations relating to nuclear accidents. Casey refused. "Today we see another example of his peddling absolute untruths," Scranton said in a news release. He said it was "part of the Casey smear campaign.

MENTAL PATIENTS PROTEST On behalf of the National Mental Health Consumers' Association, an organization of present and former mental patients, I protest the "Far Side" cartoon, "Inside the ear of crazy people," that appeared July 24. The cartoon depicts three tiny men labeled Voices 1, 2, and 3, shouting commands into someone's ear, urging the person to perform nonsensical acts, two of which are aggressive and assaultive. The implication is that "crazy people" have auditory hallucinations inciting them to strange behavior, including violence.