Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 22, 1994 TAG: 9405230093
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS and DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
U.S. Sen. Charles Robb's frustration with his first six years in office crystallized at a news conference in January on Virginia's trade with East Asia.
Just as the event was ending, a reporter asked about the personal problems that have plagued Virginia's junior senator.
Robb's reluctant answers made headlines the next day; most newspapers and television stations didn't even mention his work on trade.
As Robb embarks on a difficult re-election campaign, he argues that such media treatment has defined his first term, allowing the refrain of opponents - "you can't name three things Chuck Robb has done" - to take root among voters.
"It's easy to cover, and certainly people are interested in those things," said First in a series Robb, referring to media fascination with events that occurred in his private life nearly a decade ago. "But it takes the place in many instances of insight into what I am doing in terms of legislation of more substance."
While he blames the press, wide-ranging interviews suggest that Robb is at least partially to blame for his Senate record being eclipsed by reports of wild parties and grand jury investigations.
Robb's staff has prodded him to develop a message about his achievements and priorities in Washington. Instead, Robb stubbornly has refused to "toot his own horn," not even sending out taxpayer-funded newsletters that are a staple for almost every other senator.
The unwillingness to budge on this and other pivotal matters - seen as myopic and self-righteous by some and courageous and deeply principled by others - has been perhaps the defining trait of Robb's first term.
In early 1991, his former legislative director pressed the importance of trying to redirect the media coverage. "It may be grandstanding," Kerry Walsh Skelly wrote in a memo obtained by the Roanoke Times & World-News and the Virginian-Pilot, "but [Robb] needs to go to the floor and actually deliver a few statements."
His reluctance to try to manage his image continues to this day, despite a four-way June 14 Democratic primary race for his seat and a general election this fall.
In an interview in his Senate office, Robb acknowledged that his press secretary "wants me to put out news releases and go talk on these things. I say, `This is shallow . . . I can't in good conscience claim credit for something I didn't have that much to do with.'
"People who need to know [already] understand" his record, Robb said.
Expectations for Robb were high when he arrived in Washington in 1989 as the son-in-law of former President Lyndon Johnson and a founder of a moderate coalition that was trying to reshape the Democratic Party. At a swearing-in party attended by 3,000 people, some suggested that Robb might one day run for president.
Insiders say that given the way the Senate works, expectations of instant stardom were inflated, even if questions about his personal life had not loomed so large. Lawmakers other than senior senators and committee chairmen rarely have their names on major pieces of legislation.
"As a freshman senator, Robb has been pretty much right there with his peers," said Charles Cook, editor of a political newsletter in Washington. "But he didn't meet expectations, which probably weren't realistic to begin with."
As a senator, Robb has hunkered down to learn the system, attended to his committee assignments, chaired the Senate subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific affairs and, occasionally, been a key figure in debates on the budget and foreign policy.
Almost as if he found solace from his troubles in attending to Senate tasks, Robb has missed only one vote in six years. "His modus operandi is go, go, go," said Will Marshall, who heads the Progressive Policy Institute and is a longtime friend.
Robb says personal problems have not hurt his standing among his Senate colleagues. Others say it's difficult to gauge the impact of being the brunt of jokes by Jay Leno and David Letterman.
Robb socialized with a fast-living crowd in Virginia Beach during the mid-1980s while he was governor. The association led to allegations of extramarital affairs and accusations that he attended parties where cocaine was used. Robb has denied ever knowingly being around drugs, but has admitted to being in situations "inappropriate for a married man."
For 18 months, a grand jury investigated his role in distributing an illegally recorded tape of a telephone conversation by former Gov. Douglas Wilder. The grand jury did not indict Robb, although three of his former aides pleaded guilty to minor infractions.
"It can't help but be a distraction," acknowledged B. Roland McElroy, a former Robb chief of staff. But he added that Robb's dogged attention to his work has impressed colleagues, and that many say, "There but for the grace of God go I."
Interviews with legislators, congressional staff members and analysts suggest Robb has laid the groundwork to assume a more influential role if he can overcome the enormous political challenge of winning a second term.
His record includes an aggressive approach to reducing the federal deficit, including willingness to increase taxes; a hawkishness on defense that doesn't rule out using U.S. troops to take the lead in policing the world's trouble spots; and consistent support for civil rights of minorities, including gays in the military.
During the first four years of his term, while Republican George Bush was in the White House, Robb emerged as one of a small group of senators who provided swing votes on fiscal and foreign policy issues. His willingness to buck the party put him at odds with the Democratic leadership on support for use of force in the Persian Gulf War and for holding the line on entitlements, including Social Security benefits to senior citizens.
As the Gulf War approached in early 1991, Robb said he stood alone in arguing for the use of force during closed-door meetings with the Democratic leadership. He was one of 10 Democrats who eventually voted to authorize Bush to use force to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait.
Robb also takes credit for helping break a budget stalemate between Bush and congressional Democrats in 1990. Although he was not satisfied with the final results of the budget summit, which led Bush to abandon his no-new-taxes pledge, Robb said his argument for deficit reduction helped "change the dynamics" on the issue.
"Those are the places where you can argue that you really did make a difference in the big picture," he said.
His efforts at budget-cutting had mixed results. In 1991, Robb was booted off the Senate Budget Committee in part because he refused to go along with chairman James Sasser, a Tennessee Democrat whose deficit-reduction plan relied heavily on cuts in military spending. Robb favored an aggressive deficit reduction, but wanted to do so without carving so deeply into defense spending, which fuels Virginia's economy.
By March 1991, relations with his own party were so strained that his staff urged him to patch things up with weekly luncheons with other senators.
Virginia Republicans claim that Robb did more than mend fences with the Democratic leadership. "He has careened to the left," said Dan McLagan, spokesman for Oliver North, the Iran-Contra figure who is expected to win the GOP Senate nomination.
Other opponents note that Robb has grown less likely to vote in tandem with Virginia's senior senator, Republican John Warner.
They also cite rankings by the nonpartisan Congressional Quarterly suggesting that Southern Democrats and Republicans no longer can count on Robb to help thwart liberal initiatives of Northern Democrats. In 1993, Robb voted with the "conservative coalition" 44 percent of the time, down from 82 percent in 1989.
"I think he's looking to create some liberal base, because he knows that the middle ground - the average Virginian - will not support him because of his shenanigans," said M. Boyd Marcus, chief strategist for Jim Miller, a candidate for the Republican Senate nomination.
Robb says his core philosophy on issues hasn't shifted, and his staff say the voting scores are misleading.
The legislative agenda, they say, has changed because of the election of a new president in 1992. In the Bush years, the Senate's focus was often on economic issues such as budget-cutting; under Clinton, the agenda has shifted to social policy questions on which Robb has always been more moderate-to-liberal, said Skelly, who was Robb's legislative director from 1989 to 1993.
"He's been very consistent," she said.
Robb does acknowledge a limited number of votes in which he felt obligated to support Clinton. Robb knew Clinton when both served as governors of Southern states, and they worked together in the Democratic Leadership Council, which tried to steer the party in a more moderate direction.
"There is an obligation that you incur to attempt to support a president of your own party," Robb said.
Robb said it was easy to support the 1993 budget resolution, which reduced the deficit by $500 billion over five years through tax increases and budget cuts. But he said there have been other budget votes where he would have preferred to go further in deficit reduction.
"There were a couple of votes that I felt in my heart of hearts that I was being more of a martyr, not really a martyr, but in other words, that I was being so much of a team player that I was in effect voting against a position that I would have preferred to see in," he said.
Such compromise is both rare and discomforting for Robb. On several controversial matters, he has taken positions - and has stuck with them - even when it seemed politically risky.
He infuriated Democratic women by voting to confirm the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court; he bucked the powerful senior citizens' lobby by proposing to limit the Social Security benefits of wealthier retirees; he has advocated a 50 cents-per-gallon increase in the gasoline tax; and he hasn't shied away from the appearance that he is the chief advocate among Southern Democrats for gays in the military.
Robb, a former Marine who served in Vietnam, says the latter is a role he never sought. His entree to the debate was a private letter written several years ago to Colin Powell, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in which Robb advocated judging military servicemen and women on performance, not sexual orientation.
After the letter was unexpectedly leaked to the press, Robb did not back down, even though his stand is widely unpopular in Virginia. "All I'm saying is that we need to end discrimination," explained Robb. "The vast majority of people who actually will let their emotional level subside to the point that they can hear what I'm saying will agree that it is a fair and equitable way to approach it."
More recently, Robb astounded even Democrats who agreed with his position when he appeared as a featured speaker at a convention of gay rights advocates in Washington.
Robb said he didn't intend to signal that gay rights would be a cornerstone of his re-election. But he added: "I'm not going to stand down from that or other controversial stands that I have taken when I think they are principled and right."
\ CHARLES ROBB\ ON THE ISSUES\ \ Fiscal policy: A "deficit hawk" who believes that nothing - including taxes and entitlements - should be off-limits in balancing the budget. One exception: opposes deep cuts in defense spending that could hurt Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.\ \ Entitlements: Called for limits on benefits to wealthier Social Security recipients.\ \ Gasoline taxes: Advocated a 50-cent federal levy on motor fuels to conserve energy, reduce the deficit and lessen dependence on foreign oil.\ \ Gun control: Voted for the Brady Bill that requires a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases. Supported a ban on semiautomatic assault weapons.\ \ Environment: Voted for the 1990 Clean Air Act, but opposed a version that would have required stricter tailpipe emission standards and provided for use of clean fuels in the nation's smoggiest cities. Co-sponsored legislation to increase auto fuel efficiency requirements.\ \ Foreign policy: Urged an end to the arms embargo against Bosnian Muslims and has advocated limited air strikes to stop Serbian aggression in the former Yugoslavia. Amended State Department bill to include sanctions against North Korea for its resistance to nuclear inspections.\ \ North American Free Trade Agreement: Supported.\ \ Gay rights: Advocated moving beyond current "don't ask, don't tell" policy to allow gay servicemen and women to discretely reveal their sexual orientation. \ Abortion: Co-sponsored the Freedom of Choice Act, which codifies the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. Voted to overturn a proposed ban on abortion counseling at federally funded clinics.\ \ Labor: Voted for a procedural motion to speed consideration of a bill making it illegal for companies to hire permanent replacements for striking workers. Declined to take a position on the bill's merits.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB