Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, December 20, 1993 TAG: 9312200012
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Rob Eure
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In the spirit of Yuletide, most Virginia Democrats' most fervent wish this Christmas is for peace among their leaders.
Democrats quake at the thought of Armageddon this spring between Sen. Charles Robb and Gov. Douglas Wilder for Robb's seat.
Now comes Wilder, the departing governor who has squabbled with nearly every major state and national Democrat during his term, offering himself as international peace broker.
Wilder announced last week his Virginia Middle East Peace Commission. The commission is "to serve as a gubernatorial advisory commission on efforts the state and its citizens can make in securing peace in the Middle East," says the news release from Wilder. The commission is set to complete this job by Jan. 7.
This from a man preparing to run for the U.S. Senate next year with virtually no foreign experience other than a few trade missions, none of them to the Middle East.
In fact, Wilder is giving a formal forum to a group of Richmond Jews and Arabs who have met informally for several years, discussing the divisions in the region.
"I'm sure people will call it politics," said Eva S. Teig, a member of Wilder's commission. "But the idea here is to look for opportunities for trade if peace does come to the market. In that sense, it is a continuation for Wilder, because he has looked at a number of untraditional markets: South Africa, Central America and China."
Is Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole the only national Republican or just the first to figure out that Robb's Senate seat is a better-than-good shot for the GOP next year if the party can field a noncontroversial candidate?
Dole, at a fund-raising breakfast last week for Rep. Tom Bliley, R-Richmond, startled some Virginia Republicans by announcing that he favors Jim Miller, former director at the Office of Management and Budget under President Reagan, for the GOP nomination.
Oliver North is thought in almost every Republican circle to have a near lock on the nomination.
The aim of Dole, a potential 1996 presidential candidate, is this: Nothing against North; he's a real American hero. But Republicans have an excellent shot at the seat if they field a strong candidate. Miller has better credentials and far less baggage. He also would provide a more reliable Republican vote in the Senate than would North, whose prominence stems from his maverick work as a Marine lieutenant colonel at the National Security Council, where he masterminded the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages deal.
Lost in the squabble between Wilder and Gov.-elect George Allen over Allen's request for resignations from 450 state employees is that both men have switched sides on the issue.
In 1990, as a member of the House of Delegates, Allen supported a bill to repeal the governor's authority to cut so deeply into the bureaucracy.
Wilder, who saw the move as an affront to his power, effectively blocked the bill by attaching a provision that it would not become effective unless re-enacted by the 1994 session.
Note that neither man now argues his old position. They are consistent only in this much: They remain in opposition to each other.
by CNB