Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 19, 1994                   TAG: 9403190133
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: WARREN FISKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

EX-REAGAN AIDES ECHO CONCERNS

More than 20 stalwarts of the Reagan administration are actively supporting North's opponent for the Republican nomination - former White House Budget Director Jim Miller. Many of the aides, in recent interviews and writings, voiced deep concerns about North's honesty and qualifications to hold office.

" . . . All the Reagan Republicans who worked with North feel the same way I do," said Constantine Menges, who worked with North in the National Security Council and says North used to forge his signature on internal memos. "They all have questions about whether he's capable of telling the truth."

Former Secretary of State Alexander Haig said North is not "in any way qualified for the job" of being senator. "His background in the military sphere just doesn't justify the high office he is seeking. He ought to get down to grass roots and run for a lower political office."

Richard Allen, a former National Security Council director who was North's boss in the early 1980s, predicted Republicans will face disaster if they nominate North this spring. "If Ollie North winds up with the Republican nomination, he will lose to Chuck Robb. The information that will come out during the campaign, not to mention the many claims against established facts, will destroy Oliver North."

And Robert McFarlane, who succeeded Allen as National Security Council chief, recently wrote a newspaper column saying: "The word that comes closest to decribing him for me is `fanatic.' . . . Whatever North may tell you today has nothing to [do with] what he will do tomorrow. This campaign is a means to an end for North."

The activities of the Reagan aides have been a sore point for North all winter. For months, they urged the former president to inject himself into the campaign. Reagan's bombshell comments this week came in response to a letter from Reagan's 1980 campaign director - former Sen. Paul Laxalt, R-Nev. - imploring Reagan to respond to North's comments that the president authorized the Iran-Contra arms deal.

In speeches, North has dismissed the advisers as "a group of Washington insiders who believe they can feel the pulse of Virginia from a limousine on Pennsylvania Avenue."

North has accused Miller of relying on his former White House cohorts to salvage his campaign, instead of traveling around the state himself courting delegates to attend the Republican convention in June.

Several Reagan loyalists said North's contempt for them is consistent with North's history of demeaning his opponents and blaming his shortcomings on others.

"He's a very charismatic guy who gives a great speech and portrays himself as a victim of liberal conspiracies," said Frank Donatelli, a Reagan political adviser. "First he blames the `liberal' Congress for assailing him, then he blames the `liberal' press. But how can he attack us? We're thinking, Reagan Republicans."

Some Reagan advisers acknowledge that they are acting primarily out of loyalty to Miller, whom they describe as an able budget chief for the former president and a true conservative. "It's just the clan backing one of its own," said Lyn Nofziger, a former White House political director. "Ollie was never a member of the inner circle."

Nofziger and others argue that Miller's experience as a budget director and academic far exceeds North's background as a Marine lieutenant colonel.

Former Attorney General Edwin Meese and former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, after lauding Miller's background, declined to discuss their thoughts about North.

Others, however, insist that North failed the president with his activities in the Iran-Contra affair and has exhibited dangerous traits.

Martin Anderson, a former economic adviser, questioned whether North is guilty of "serious corruption" by giving arms business to individuals who deposited $200,000 in Swiss bank accounts as an insurance fund for North and his family.

Keywords:
POLITICS