Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 4, 1993 TAG: 9303040230
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
THEY SWITCH SIDES, STILL DIVIDED DURING LAST YEAR'S CAMPAIGN, THE NEWSPAPER
Elizabeth Curtis voted for Bill Clinton. She is a longtime Democrat.But the new president is making her nervous.
Take taxes.
"I would have voted for him [anyway] if he'd said he wanted to raise taxes," Curtis said.
But Clinton, of course, pledged during the campaign not to raise taxes on the middle class.
And now he wants to.
To Curtis, the reasons sound fishy.
"The only thing I question is: How much worse could it have gotten? If he had this crack team of economic advisers, couldn't they have anticipated this?" said Curtis, a music teacher.
"It really gets to the point where you can't believe any of it."
Meanwhile, Mark Camphouse, her die-hard Republican husband, for some reason isn't blinking at the prospect of higher taxes.
"I don't have any trouble with paying $20 a month if it will help," Camp-house said. Some estimates of the cost of Clinton's proposed energy tax have been about $20 a month per household.
In fact, the day after Clinton's address to Congress, Camphouse had this to say about the new Democratic president:
"I was in agreement with virtually everything he had to say. He [Clinton] has a plan, and he delivered it effectively. I really think he should be given a chance to give it a try."
Somehow, it has come to this: Camphouse, who thinks Ronald Reagan's face belongs on Mount Rushmore, praising a Democratic president and higher taxes.
Curtis, the Democrat, wondering if the first Democratic president in a dozen years is just one more politician.
It is possible, of course, that they just like to argue.
By their own admission, these two have been arguing politics ever since they met, 12 years ago. A chaplain, upon hearing of their plans for marriage, had remarked it would be like Jane Fonda marrying Alexander Haig.
Their relatives are amazed at how the couple - parents of 6-year-old twins, Briton and Beth - can fight about politics and yet continue to live in the same house.
The couple insists it's never personal. "It's always a healthy discussion," Camphouse says.
Camphouse, director of bands at Radford University, voted for Clinton because he was disenchanted with George Bush. He insists he is still a Republican.
And, actually, Camphouse the Republican is not wholly satisfied with Clinton's first few weeks in office.
He said the new president blew it on several Cabinet choices, including Secretary of State Warren Christopher - "Jimmy Carter's second-stringer" - Secretary of Defense Les Aspin and Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen.
"I'm sorry. He's a good-old-boy Texas Democrat," Camphouse said of Bentsen. "I don't want him minding the Treasury."
Curtis, on the other hand, is impressed by the diversity of the new president's Cabinet. "It's a breath of fresh air to see the people who are going to make the decisions in this country are reflecting what the country is," she said.
What about Zoe Baird?
"What do I think about it? Not much," Camphouse said of the attorney general nominee sunk by her illegal child-care arrangements. "I think the press had a field day. If her qualifications are truly outstanding, I really would like to give a talented, capable person the benefit of the doubt.
"Clinton's team is new," Camphouse said. "They're going to make mistakes. One indiscretion . . .."
"I'm not sure breaking the law can be considered an indiscretion," Curtis said.
And so it goes.