Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 14, 1990 TAG: 9006180200
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-14 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In the wake of reports that the state Democratic Party has yet to pay the attorneys who represented him during the recount of last year's general-election results, Gov. Douglas Wilder blamed . . . the guy he thinks leaked the story.
That guy is Bobby Watson, an aide to Sen. Charles Robb. It's not exactly news that the relationship between Wilder and Robb - rivals not only for pre-eminence within the Virginia Democratic Party but also for the role of Virginian most likely to be on a national ticket - is less than warm. Watson says the allegation isn't true.
But never mind that. What Wilder ought to be worrying about is the content of the story, not its source. Perhaps Wilder had "absolutely nothing" to do with hiring the recount attorneys, as he says. He's still a Democratic governor with the customary control over state Democratic Party machinery.
The Republicans have had their own, rather more serious problems with state-party finances. That didn't stop Steve Haner, executive director of the Republican Joint Legislative Caucus, from advising the Democrats to pay up, fast. "If there's one thing the average American voter and the average American working person can't put up with, it's a deadbeat," Haner said. We're not so sure - at least when it's lawyers who're getting stiffed.
Still, there are legitimate questions for the public to ask. Assume the best, that the non-payment reflects a legitimate dispute over the billing, and there remains the question of who dropped the ball in not coming to a clear understanding with the attorneys beforehand.
The governor would be better off to quit crying he was Robbed, and instead tell Paul Goldman, his hand-picked party chairman, to get the matter settled.
by CNB