Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 2, 1994 TAG: 9404040170
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
PAU requires elected leaders to talk a good game of putting principles ahead of party and politics while doing the opposite. Warner, at some political risk to himself, seems actually to be putting principles first.
Warner apparently believes that North, a fellow Republican, is unfit to serve in the U.S. Senate. He believes North's nomination by the state GOP would be an insult to our proud commonwealth. He is right. But more than that, Warner has had the guts to speak out against North from the day the Iran-Contra figure announced his candidacy.
This past week, Warner was pressured by, of all people, Jim Miller, to make a party-loyalty pledge to support North if North becomes the nominee. Never mind that Miller is opposing North for the nomination and is desperate to attract delegates from his camp (which explains Miller's ploy); never mind that Warner is supporting Miller for the nomination; never mind that Miller himself has labeled North a fraud. This is what you call PAU.
Yet, once again, Warner showed courage. He said hell no.
"I cannot, as a matter of principle, automatically do an about-face," said the senator, and support a man he believes is unfit. "I could not, as a matter of personal conscience, go to voters of our great state and urge them to place their trust and confidence in this man."
And if it's Republican North vs. incumbent Democrat Charles Robb - who's already done his share to tarnish Virginia's reputation - Warner said he may back an unsullied independent candidate (assuming one's available).
Principle? Conscience? Who cares about that stuff?
Some Virginia Republicans don't, obviously. They're ready to tar and feather Warner for breaching PAU and partisan fidelity.
To be sure, Republicans have cause to complain that Warner has been virtually silent about Robb's record and "fitness" for the Senate, which have been harshly criticized by former Democratic Gov. Douglas Wilder and others in Robb's own party. Warner may end that silence if Robb is nominated in the Democratic primary in June.
But, meanwhile, Republicans ought to be thanking Warner instead of looking for a hanging tree. The senator is trying to keep his party from nominating the one person who almost guarantees Robb's re-election - assuming Robb can ward off Democrats challenging him in the primary.
More important, Warner is trying to prevent his party as well as his state from becoming a laughingstock.
A pity that can't be said of more Virginia Republican leaders, including Gov. George Allen, who've taken the dodo pledge to support whomever the GOP nominates - felonies, fabrications and fanaticism aside.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB