Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 28, 1994 TAG: 9401280050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Miller, who was budget director under President Ronald Reagan, concedes he doesn't have North's celebrity status or army of followers.
So Miller appears to be hoping instead that North, the key figure in the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages affair, will self-destruct as he makes his Senate campaign official.
"I think this week will tell a lot," Miller said as he campaigned in Roanoke on Thursday, the first day of a four-day swing through Southwest Virginia. "We'll see what the reaction is."
Miller noted North's appearance Wednesday night on CNN's "Larry King Live," pointing out that "the first three or four callers were extremely critical" of the former National Security Council aide's role in Iran-Contra.
North was convicted of three felony charges for lying to Congress, but the convictions were overturned on appeal.
Miller said he has talked with North privately and thinks North "really believes [Iran-Contra] is not going to come up, that it's old hat."
But Miller said the CNN talk show - highlighted by Sen. John Warner, R-Va., calling North unfit for office - shows that questions about Iran-Contra won't go away.
Miller is hoping that the more exposure North gets, the more questions Republican activists will begin to raise about his qualifications.
Beyond that, Miller seems reluctant - at least for now - to attack North directly.
He is happy to say North carries "a lot of baggage" and will be vulnerable to Democratic attacks this fall. But that's a strategic evaluation of North's candidacy. Does Miller think what North did was wrong? Does he think North's overturned felony convictions are relevant?
"Absolutely, it's relevant," Miller said. "It really is relevant." But he quickly adds, "I don't like to get into it."
Instead, he'd rather zing North from another direction - for refusing to debate Miller and for setting up his announcement-day events to avoid questions from reporters.
"He says he'll meet [terrorist] Abu Nidal anytime, anyplace," Miller said, "but he won't meet the press, except in highly-structured circumstances."
Miller accused North of ducking debates and in-depth interviews because, "I don't think Ollie North knows a lot about the issues."
Instead, he charged that North wants to conduct a campaign on generalities - which is why Miller is so hopeful that the increased attention on North this week will expose his rival's vulnerabilities.
Virginia Tech political analyst Bob Denton - whose speciality is how politicians present their messages through television - isn't so certain.
He agrees that North's performance on "Larry King Live" was not impressive and that North so far has offered few specifics about issues. But that won't matter to the conservative activists who dominate the GOP nominating process, Denton said.
"North may self-destruct in the media, he may self-destruct with party leaders, but party leaders are not going to decide the nomination," Denton said. "North's popularity is with the grass-roots people, and just as we saw with Mike Farris [the home-schooling lawyer who won the nomination for lieutenant governor last year] his core supporters will turn out."
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB