Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 27, 1990 TAG: 9003270279
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARGIE FISHER RICHMOND BUREAU
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Wilder's seemingly miraculous conversion to the "mainstream" philosophy long espoused by Robb and the Democratic Leadership Council he founded? "I'll let you characterize where he's been and where he is," said the smiling Robb.
Wilder's seeming delight in backstabbing other state Democrats? Including Robb's close friend, former Gov. Gerald Baliles? "I'm not going to comment on those matters," Robb said.
"Well, let me ask you this: When you and Doug are in the same room, do you sit with your back to the wall?" asked one reporter.
"I'm going to give you an A for creative reinterpretation of questions," Robb said. "I normally try to face the action wherever it's coming from. But again, I'm just not going to take the bait. You all have plenty of grist. You don't need anybody else to stir the pot."
Robb, who preceded Baliles in the governor's office, said he was careful never to criticize Baliles, "and I'm going to extend that same courtesy to Doug Wilder."
Even though Wilder hasn't always shown that same courtesy to Robb and Baliles? Robb said nothing. He kept smiling.
"Let the record show he nodded," said the reporter who'd asked that question.
By the way, Robb asked, had Wilder arrived yet?
"No, the palms will be placed in the aisles when he makes his entrance," one of the reporters quipped.
Appearing to enjoy the game, Robb said, "I want it recorded that [a reporter] said that, not Chuck Robb."
While Virginia journalists have more interest than most, they are not the only ones keeping a close eye on Robb and Wilder and the new dynamics that exist between them.
By just about everyone's assessment, both men have emerged as stars on the national political stage.
Both are attractive, intelligent and extraordinarily ambitious, and the chances are good that one - but not both - could become a candidate for president or vice president before the end of this decade.
Both deny there is any rivalry between them.
"There's no competition," said Robb, adding that he's "quite content" with the role he's playing in the U.S. Senate and is making no moves to enter presidential politics.
"There's no competition between Chuck and me for anything," said Wilder, insisting that he's too busy with his "full plate" of responsibilities as governor to be thinking about a bid for national office.
But others, including many non-Virginians, believe there is indeed a rivalry between Wilder and Robb. At this point, it has not manifested itself as much as the competition for national pre-eminence between Wilder and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. But there is, nonetheless, a low-level Wilder-Robb rivalry going on, too.
The Democratic Leadership Council conference in New Orleans last weekend was a prime opportunity for Democrats and their followers from throughout the country to size up Virginia's two best-known politicians and, possibly, to place their bets on which might have the best chance of making it to the White House.
What star-gazers would have seen was two distinctly different political styles:
Robb - calm, cool and collected. A man making his mark by offering substantive proposals.
Wilder - charmingly playful and sizzling hot. A man who knows that flourishes and savoir faire often appeal more than substance.
Some of the contrast in their styles comes through in the way they deal with the news media.
Robb, when asked about an issue, will likely produce a well-thought-out response. Almost for certain, it will be wordy. But he seems genuinely interested in helping reporters understand why he has taken one position or another.
Wilder, asked the same question, will provide the kind of "sound bite" that is the bread and butter of radio and television reporters.
And, as Virginia reporters know and national journalists are beginning to find out, he also is an artful dodger.
Wilder will make bald-faced claims to have given a candid answer when he has, in fact, said nothing. Or his answers will be obfuscated to invite misinterpretation and then, if he's challenged later on what he said, he will insist, "I never said that."
Surrounded by Virginia reporters who have covered him for many years, Robb will joke around, as he did in the exchange described above. But he constantly keeps his guard up. One gets the impression that he rarely lets it down, even with close political allies.
Wilder's joking around with reporters is much more natural, less cautious.
He can make the most pious pronouncements, then double over with laughter and wink or give a reporter a friendly poke in the ribs as if to say, "Of course it's fraudulent, but isn't this a wonderful game?"
Virginia reporters watched with amusement at the DLC conference last weekend as Wilder baffled journalists from other states. They could see Wilder grinning all the way back to Virginia, telling himself "I'm soooooo baaaaad!"
Robb has never been known as a great public speaker. Although he is much better now than when he was governor in 1981-85, he still plods through carefully prepared remarks that often read better than he makes them sound.
Wilder can often be eloquent, although his moments of oratory brilliance are most likely to come when he's speaking extemporaneously. A prepared text seems to bog Wilder down and cause him to step all over his lines.
Both Robb and Wilder were spotlighted on the program at the DLC conference as major participants.
Robb's speech was a highly substantive "think piece" focusing on the identity crisis of the national party and steps that Democrats must take to gain parity again with Republicans in presidential elections.
"For over a half-century, our party's identity has been closely linked to the vigorous and expansive use of federal power. . . . It is time for Democrats to lead the nation in a systematic re-evaluation of federal policies and programs designed long ago to deal with problems that, in some cases, no longer exist," Robb said.
"We cannot allow an attachment to existing federal programs to bind us to the political status quo. For the current climate of fiscal insolvency and legislative gridlock in Washington is hardly conducive to the kind of bold and imaginative thinking we need today."
To seize the political initiative, Robb said, Democrats must "demonstrate the toughness to govern. Today that means taking a highly skeptical stance toward business as usual in Washington. . . . Instead of fighting rear-guard actions to preserve programs created in the '30s and '60s, we need to recapture the bold vision and experimental spirit that is the true legacy of Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and Johnson."
Wilder's speech was, essentially, an ode to his own accomplishments in the two months that he's been Virginia's governor and a recommendation that national Democrats everywhere follow him into the New Mainstream.
In recent speeches to national audiences, Wilder has bragged about cutting spending to balance the state's budget, about persuading the legislature to set aside a $200 million rainy-day fund, about repealing the sales tax on non-prescription drugs and about fighting drugs.
What Wilder doesn't point out is that the $26 billion two-year budget just passed by the General Assembly is still larger than the previous two-year budget, that the $200 million reserve is earmarked for pay raises for teachers and state employees, that the repeal of the sales tax will not become effective until 1992, and that he has not yet introduced any major anti-drug initiatives.
But Wilder has never been a stickler for details. What he has always been is a master of the symbolic. One of the most natural politicians Virginia has ever produced, he is like a floodlight shining at night into a yard full of fireflies.
by CNB