
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 28, 1993                   TAG: 9304280094
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

GOODLATTE GETS WALK-ON ROLE IN HOUSE HEARINGS

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, may get a turn in the national spotlight today when the House Judiciary Committee opens hearings into the fatal fire at the Branch Davidian cult compound in Texas.

But he's not counting on it.

As a freshman on the committee, he'll be last in line to ask questions. By then, Goodlatte said Tuesday, most of the obvious questions likely will have been asked.

Instead, Goodlatte said, he's boning up for the hearings the same way he used to prepare for cross-examinations during his trial days as a lawyer: "My best position is to follow up questions that have been asked before and see where the answers lead."

Committee members have received private briefings by both the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which staged the initial raid, and the FBI, which led last week's tear-gas assault.

"I've gotten quite a lot of reading material," Goodlatte said, "everything from copies of [cult leader] David Koresh's handwritten notes to all kinds of photographs and diagrams of the compound."

Goodlatte says he's keeping an open mind. "I think the two key questions are: What went wrong in the first place, and what went wrong when they tried to wrap it up?"

by CNB