THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 29, 1994 TAG: 9407290586
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
Colin Powell has put his foot on the path that Virginia GOP leaders expect could lead him to the White House, perhaps as early as 1996.
While he was in the Army, Americans weren't sure what party Powell favored. But the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff gave us a clue by showing his preferences in the U.S. Senate race in Virginia.
His entry into politics is as intriguing as anything that has occurred during the free-for-all campaign among the four Senate candidates.
First, he said he couldn't support Republican nominee Oliver North, the retired Marine lieutenant colonel with whom Powell served in the Reagan White House.
``It has to do with my assessment of his ability and his conduct over . . . the Irangate period,'' Powell said in early May.
``Because of my understanding of his activities, I would not have confidence in his ability to serve in the Senate,'' he said before North was nominated by the GOP on June 4.
Several weeks after the Republican convention, Powell donated $1,000 to independent J. Marshall Coleman's campaign for the Senate.
Twice an unsuccessful Republican candidate for governor, Coleman is a neighbor of Powell in McLean.
A few days later Powell donated $1,000 to former Democratic Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, also running as an independent. Wilder noted that the two are friends. The gesture also seems to acknowledge Wilder's historic role as Virginia's first black governor since Reconstruction.
Powell's admirers in the GOP, elated he is in the arena, don't even want to discuss now how he could run on the Republican presidential ticket two years hence.
They are like a fellow who goes out early one morning and, stooping to pick up the newspaper, finds himself eye-to-eye with an American eagle perched a foot away on an azalea shrub.
He backs inside the door, calls the neighbors who, after a peek, also give the eagle a wide berth for fear he might fly away if they make a fuss over him.
Here, though, is how the way could open for the eagle to run in 1996. First, the dignified retired general is a powerfully attractive figure of immense gravitas.
Republicans say his reassuring air and command of people and events rival that of Dwight D. Eisenhower, who came out of the Army and won the presidential race in 1952, despite the opposition of much of the GOP party structure.
With Ike, as with Powell now, the mass of the people, regardless of parties, were drawn to him. Ike's foe, Republican Ohio Sen. Robert A. Taft, was a beloved conservative leader.
A coalition of conservatives and moderates from both parties virtually drafted Eisenhower into running and then, playing on popular opinion, wrested the nomination from the respected Taft at the party's national convention in Chicago.
Today much of the public is out of sorts with politicians as a breed. Most would relish having Powell in politics. Many would prefer him at the helm of either ticket.
What drags President Clinton to abysmal ratings are continuing disclosures of his dismaying past. As revelations break in the headlines, it is as if the improprieties are just occurring.
So Republicans salivate at the notion of regaining the presidency.
But with who as standard bearer?
Sen. Robert Dole, the GOP front-runner perceived formerly as trenchant, forthright and objective, is becoming a grump who finds nothing of merit in the opposition.
He and other Republican disgrunts stress that they backed the president on the North American Free Trade Agreement. But NAFTA was their heart's desire. It was Clinton who had to thwart his basic constituency to rescue the agreement.
After the doleful one comes perpetually querulous Phil Gramm, the Democrats' favorite foe, and Newt Gingrich, who was heard to advise Republicans to oppose even changes they favored in the health plan, lest Clinton get credit for its passage.
Jack Kemp, a sane voice in the right wing, has an unforgivable weakness. He has a streak of kindness. The far right suspects Dick Cheney is too cool, too intelligent.
Tank thinkers include Bill Bennett, who led education and the drug war with negligible results.
Could Dole be himself and back the genuine best in the Clinton program, he would win voters' confidence; but he is trying to be minority leader and a presidential contender and the two are at odds.
If the economy is percolating like morning coffee in 1996, there's no given that any of that crew could whip Clinton.
But on the sidelines is the general without a negative dent in his armor, a decent leader for a change.
Powell has described himself as ``an entrepreneurial capitalist. However, we must face reality that there are some situations in this country in which the government has a voice.'' He mentioned helping people trapped in poverty.
It's what Ike professed.
And look at the Democrat he defeated: Adlai Stevenson.
Is there, as Virginia Republicans expect, a draft in the offing?
They are ready to fan it. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Today, much of the public is out of sorts with politicians as a
breed. Most would relish having Powell in politics.
by CNB