Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 29, 1991 TAG: 9103290690
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The 40-year-old South Carolinian had battled a brain tumor for more than a year.
Atwater died at George Washington University Hospital at 6:24 a.m. EST, according to Mary Matalin, chief of staff of the Republican National Committee.
President Bush mourned his longtime friend, and said Atwater "will always be in our memories."
"Barbara and I lost a great friend in Lee Atwater," Bush said in a statement released by the White House. "I valued Lee's counsel and abilities. The Republican Party will miss his energy, vision, and leadership. "Barbara and I give our deepest condolences to Sally, the kids and Lee's parents. We share their grief. He will always be in our memories."
A wiry, driven man constantly in motion, Atwater was at the peak of an extraordinary career when he was stricken.
"A reputation as a fierce and ugly campaigner has dogged me," Atwater once conceded. "While I didn't invent `negative politics,' I am one of its most ardent practitioners." Even Bush, Atwater's friend and patron, felt the sting of those tactics when they were on opposite sides in the 1980 GOP presidential primaries.
Early in the 1988 campaign against Democrat Michael Dukakis, Atwater bluntly told a Republican audience: "If I can make Willie Horton a household name, we'll win the election."
He succeeded on both counts. Horton was a convicted murderer who raped a woman while on a weekend furlough from a Massachusetts prison. The Bush campaign used the incident to portray Dukakis as a liberal who was soft on crime.
Democrats denounced Atwater's "pit bull style of politics," but he enjoyed Bush's unqualified support.
During his long fight against the tumor, Atwater publicly apologized to the targets of his political tactics.
In a first-person article published in January in Life magazine, Atwater wrote, "in 1988, fighting Dukakis, I said that I `would strip the bark off the little bastard' and `make Willie Horton his running mate.' I am sorry for both statements: the first for its naked cruelty, the second because it makes me sound racist, which I am not."
Atwater had been in the hospital since March 5, the most recent of several hospitalizations for a "general deterioration in the condition," said RNC spokesman B.J. Cooper.
He was "at peace and comfortable," alert and conversant in recent weeks, Cooper said.
Atwater received a visit Thursday from former President Reagan, who was in Washington for an appearance at George Washington University, a White House aide said.
Funeral services will be held in his hometown of Columbia, S.C., Matalin said in a statement read to reporters.
"The Atwater family thanks all of Lee's many friends, who for the past year especially, shared strong support, deep love and daily prayers," the statement said.
Clayton Yeutter, who succeeded Atwater as RNC chairman in January, said Atwater's death "takes from us one of the nation's most outstanding political minds."
Not only had Atwater run a presidential campaign and become chairman of the Republican Party, but he also had attained his dream of performing with some of the greatest rhythm and blues musicians.
An accomplished guitarist and blues singer, Atwater was featured along with B.B. King, Isaac Hayes and Billy Preston on "Red, Hot and Blue," a rhythm and blues album issued last spring.
But it was in politics that he made his mark and it often was a controversial one.
More tactician than ideologue, Atwater acted quickly to move the Republican Party away from its hard-line opposition to abortion after GOP candidates lost to pro-choice Democrats in two high-profile races in 1989.
He also made attracting black voters to the GOP a top priority. Ironically, that goal was hampered by his success in making Horton an issue in the presidential campaign. Nonetheless, the 1990 elections saw the victory of Rep. Gary Franks of Connecticut, the first black Republican to serve in the House in 58 years.
Atwater met frequently with blacks as he traveled around the country, but the memory of the Horton case lingered. When he was named to the board of trustees of predominantly black Howard University in Washington D.C., students protested until he resigned.
When Republican candidates found themselves on the defensive on the abortion issue, Atwater advised them not to waffle, to state their position, for or against, and stick with it.
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by CNB