Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 11, 1994 TAG: 9403110157
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From MARGARET EDDS and WARREN FISKE, Staff Writers and The Washington
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
In a long-awaited explanation of his personal behavior that he hopes will put questions about character flaws behind him, U.S. Sen. Charles Robb acknowledged Thursday that he has "wronged" his wife.
In a five-page letter sent to Democratic activists across the state, Robb came close to a tacit acknowledgement of marital infidelity during the early 1980s, allegations he has denied for eight years.
Robb's letter comes a week after The Washington Post questioned him extensively about a series of memorandums from his staff - and one written by the senator himself - that provided new details about his conduct in Virginia Beach during his term as governor.
The memos recently obtained by The Post indicate that Robb's own staff concluded he had numerous sexual relationships with younger women and include allegations that he was often in the presence of drug users, though there was no suggestion that the senator himself used illegal drugs.
In his letter, Robb denied having any contact with illegal drugs, blamed his conflicts with former Gov. Douglas Wilder on overzealous aides and insisted that a long grand jury investigation of him was "politically motivated and intended principally to injure my political career."
The memos obtained by The Post indicate his staff was uncomfortable about Robb's activities at Virginia Beach.
For example, Robb's Senate press secretary at the time, Steven Johnson, in a memo to his boss dated Dec. 5, 1990, reported that "interviews with people familiar with Robb's activities at the beach indicate that he allegedly was joined on perhaps two dozen occasions by people who were heavy drug users and served federal prison sentences on cocaine and drug-related charges."
Elsewhere in the memo, in a section titled "Womanizing," Johnson wrote, "Robb did engage in sexual relations, or oral sex, with at least half-a-dozen women."
In an interview in his Capitol Hill office March 2, Robb was asked about the allegations contained in the memos and his prior public statements about those issues.
"I chose my words with care," the senator replied. "I previously said I hadn't slept with anyone, hadn't had an affair. I clearly did not limit anything more than that. I drew a line and stuck by that line. And I really don't think it's any of your business or anyone else's business."
With Robb planning to announce his candidacy for a second term on Sunday, his letter comes as media examinations of his personal conduct are being renewed.
Robb pledged that the letter would be the last word on "private social activities that took place over eight years ago."
Like President Clinton, who went on national television during his 1992 campaign to address charges of having had extramarital affairs, Robb didn't confess any dalliances, but didn't deny them. He quoted his wife, Lynda Bird Johnson Robb, as saying "the person you've hurt the most, and the only one you've really wronged, is me. And I've forgiven you."
Robb added, "it would not be proper or dignified to be more specific about matters that are purely private . . . because it's not really anyone else's business."
Robb insisted, as he has before, that "I have always told the truth," about his personal controversies. But the letter raises questions about his candor six years ago when he said as he kicked off his first Senate campaign, "The only person I have ever loved emotionally or physically is my bride."
Most of the memos were written by Robb staff members in 1990 and 1991 after several of the senator's aides were dispatched to Virginia Beach and interviewed numerous people familiar with his activities.
The memos say that Robb staff members spent hundreds of hours gathering information about his 99 separate trips - covering 173 days - to the resort area during his term as governor, from 1982 to 1986.
While about two-thirds of Robb's trips to the beach had some relation to business, there was no such explanation for at least 30 of the trips, Johnson reported. "Additionally, Lynda Robb or the Robb children were not at the beach during most of the these trips, according to scheduling reports," Johnson wrote.
The memos about the issues raised by those trips include a 12-page memo Robb wrote, dated Aug. 11, 1987, to executives of the Hunton and Williams law firm, where Robb worked.
"I'd have to acknowledge that I have a weakness for the fairer sex - and I hope I never get over it," Robb wrote. "But I've always drawn the line on certain conduct," despite being in private situations with "some very alluring company."
"I haven't done anything that I regard as unfaithful to my wife, and she is the only woman I've loved, or slept with, or had coital relations with in the 20 years we've been married - and I'm still crazy about her," Robb wrote.
The political question is whether Robb's letter to Democrats will help him or reacquaint voters with his past troubles.
Several of the people Robb had associated with at Virginia Beach while he was governor were convicted, indicted or granted immunity in a federal probe of cocaine trafficking.
In 1991 a former Miss Virginia-U.S.A., Tai Collins of Roanoke, claimed she had an affair with Robb during that period. Robb denied the affair, although he admitted receiving a nude massage from her in a New York hotel.
In an effort to deflect attention from Robb's troubles, several aides leaked a copy of an illegally-taped telephone conversation between Wilder and a political supporter. That led to the firing of three top aides, who later pleaded guilty to illegally distributing the tapes.
A grand jury investigated Robb for 18 months in 1991 and 1992. No indictment was issued, but the controversy rekindled a bitter feud with Wilder, who claimed Robb had made him "a victim of crime."
Robb reasserted that he had never listened to the tape nor authorized his aides to leak it to reporters. He said, "My mistake, and I've paid dearly for it, was not immediately insisting the tape be destroyed."
Robb said his three aides, who paid civil penalties ranging up to $10,000, "in my judgment paid a far too heavy price for their infractions."
As for Wilder, Robb gave a litany of how each had supported the other at crucial times in their political careers. "I have to ask how could something that began so well have gone so wrong."
Robb said his mistake was not earlier ending rivalries between his staff and Wilder's. "We've both suffered the consequences," he said.
In the short run, the letter is an effort by Robb to launch his re-election campaign without answering an onslaught of questions about his personal activities. It's far from certain the letter will erase those matters from the campaign.
Robert Holsworth, a Virginia Commonwealth University political scientist, applauded Robb's statement, particularly the part about marital fidelity. "The dilemma now is: Is it too late?"
Some of Robb's political advisers and many of his supporters have sought to persuade the senator for years to make a definitive explanation to Virginia voters about his behavior.
Robb tried to do that in 1988, but ended up accusing the media of voyeurism. His pledge to make that October speech his last word on the controversy was short-lived. In 1991, Collins made her claims of the affair public on a network news program that also raised questions about whether Robb had witnessed cocaine use at a Virginia Beach party. The NBC program, "Expose," also alleged that members of Robb's staff intimidated people who were giving reporters information about Robb's social life at the Beach.
Robb's opponents suggested that his letter may not make his problems go away. Sylvia Clute, a Richmond lawyer who so far has provided only token opposition to Robb for the Democratic nomination, said, "Why are people even bothering with a candidate who takes five pages to explain his indiscretions when they have one here who doesn't have any indiscretions to explain? It would take five pages to tell the good things I've done."
Mark Merritt, a spokesman for Oliver North, the front-runner for the Republican nomination, said Robb is unpopular "not because of his odd personal life, but because he is part of the problem in Washington, D.C."
As a principal participant in the Iran-Contra scandal, North faces his own character questions involving his candor with congressional investigators and his oversight of money raised to help Nicaraguan anti-Communist rebels. Those questions could preclude his making a campaign issue out of Robb's past difficulties.
A spokesman for North's GOP rival, former federal budget chief James Miller, declined to comment on the Robb letter before reading it.
As for Robb's former aides, one of them, former press secretary Steven Johnson said, "On the one hand, it is commendable what he said about some matters. On the other, some skeptical members of the press might ask what he is apologizing for."
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