Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 12, 1994 TAG: 9403160008
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Maybe he dropped it in 1977, after sweeping into statewide office on the strength of little but his celebrity marriage to the daughter of a president.
Or maybe it got lost in 1981, when Robb became a Democratic hero with a relatively effortless election to the governorship and the consequent end to 12 years of GOP rule.
Whatever the precise date, the loss continues to generate questions about now-Sen. Robb - even assuming that he regained self-discipline years ago, which by all accounts he has.
The senator may have hoped to put such issues to rest with a five-page mea culpa sent Thursday to Democratic Party activists across Virginia. But his letter only re-raises the questions.
In some respects, the senator continues to lead a charmed political life. If he gains the Democratic nomination, and Oliver North is the GOP nominee, Robb seems likely to win re-election. North, whose own checkered past includes subversion of the U.S. Constitution, is one of the few Republicans who could lose to him.
Still, Robb has much to answer for.
The extramarital affairs implicitly acknowledged in his letter scarcely recommend him as an admirable person or a worthy role model. In themselves, though, his flings are more his marriage's problems than the public's. If it were only a story of philandering, this would be a tawdry, dreary tale - but also a familiar and hardly remarkable one.
Yet there is more to the Robb story than this. His letter this week invites anew the difficult questions about him that clearly are of public concern:
What does Robb's cultivation of an image as a milk-drinking squeaky-clean family man, and his previous denials of what he now seems to acknowledge, say about his integrity?
What does Robb's socializing, during his governorship, with Virginia Beach sleazeballs say about his judgment?
What does Robb's willingness to continue that socializing, after warnings from friends and political allies, say about his intelligence?
What do the later convictions of three of Robb's closest aides, for spreading contents of an intercepted phone call, say about his leadership?
Such questions, moreover, arise even under the best face that can be put on his behavior.
They arise, for example, even if you assume that Robb in fact did not see or know of any illegal-drug use at the beach parties he attended while the state's chief law-enforcement officer. That he in fact did not know what his aides were doing with the tape of the intercepted phone conversation of his political rival, Douglas Wilder, received and stored at his Senate offfice. That he had no role in the alleged abuses of his office when aides spent hundreds of hours in Virginia Beach trying to cover up rumors and intimidate critics.
Robb may be worth re-electing on other grounds. But even if he faces North in the general election, he can't expect to base his campaign on the hope that Virginians will forget about his past.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB