Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 8, 1994 TAG: 9408080069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY
DATELINE: HARDY LENGTH: Medium
Suddenly, the most critical issue in the campaign was not health care or the economy or whether to invade Haiti, but the fate of the lead fishing sinker.
"Ta, da!" North declared, holding the endangered device aloft while the white-shirted scribblers in his media entourage stared in stupefaction. "The secret weapon!"
So the Environmental Protection Agency fears that waterfowl - especially loons - may die if they swallow lead sinkers and lures? The Republican Senate nominee made it clear he's not much concerned about lead poisoning among the loon community.
"This is loony," he said. "The most endangered species is not the snail darter or the spotted owl but the traditional American family and those of us who call ourselves sportsmen."
Will the lead sinker become a cultural flashpoint in the Senate race the way the Pledge of Allegiance did in the Bush-Dukakis presidential campaign of 1988?
Will the loon replace the spotted owl as the bird conservatives would most like to see saved, only to be served at large family gatherings where the best china can be used?
Maybe not.
But this wasn't just about lead sinkers, North cautioned, or even attempts by the "radical environmentalists and gun grabbers" to ban hunting and fishing. This was about family values; this was even about fighting crime.
The Clinton administration wants to fund midnight basketball leagues in inner-cities as a way to keep kids away from street crime? North says the country would be better off to encourage hunting and fishing.
"I'm going to encourage dads and moms to take their kids and go out and hunt and fish," he said. "There are relatively few people in prison today who ever had a hunting or fishing license in their pocket."
A chicken (or maybe a loon?) in every pot and two hunting licenses in every garage?
The crowd of anglers gathered around the dock of the Indian Point Marina nodded hearty agreement; the television crew accompanying syndicated hunting-and-fishing show host Buck McNeely shouted out more raucous approval.
Even the correspondent for Spin - a rock 'n' roll magazine more likely to write about Led Zeppelin than lead sinkers - seemed delighted, although for different reasons.
If he'd come to Virginia to write about how the yokels are going ya-ya for North, he'd picked the right day to do it. "This is an Ollie stronghold," assured North's host, Ditch Witch of Roanoke owner Russ Duncan.
What's more, the candidate had set aside parts of two days to tape ... TV commercials? Nope, a hunting and fishing show, "The Outdoorsman with Buck McNeely."
Friday, North and McNeely cast their lines into Smith Mountain Lake (presumably with lead sinkers). Saturday, they went skeet-shooting near Altavista.
In between, they talked a little politics. Or maybe a lot. "We need people like Oliver North to stand up and take on the anti-gun forces and speak the truth to mainstream America," McNeely said.
Taping a hunting-and-fishing show is not exactly an action drama, especially when the fish aren't biting.
To kill time out on the press boat, McNeely's crew passed out copies of the magazine he's just started publishing, "Outdoorsman International Adventure Magazine," a publication whose cover is regularly devoted to a picture of Buck with the dead animal of the month.
Inside, though, it's more about targeting liberals than nine-point bucks, chock full of stories with titles like "Christianity and the Honest Gun Owner" and "Expose: The Plan to Disarm America."
Check out the derisive references to "comrade Klinton." Or the cartoon of the first lady wielding a knife and a baton. "The Most Dangerous Woman in the World! Tonya Rodham Bobbitt."
Just think of Buck McNeely as the Rush Limbaugh of the hunting-and-fishing show circuit. After all, McNeely bragged, they're both from the same hometown - Cape Girardeau, Mo. "He's No. 1 and I'm No. 2."
The Spin correspondent was so fascinated by McNeely's publication, he wanted a complete set to take back to California with him, bartering with fellow journalists like a kid trading baseball cards.
Trade you this extra "Siberian Brown Bear Safari" issue for your wild boar hunt copy.
But it's North who probably gets the last laugh: He's already built an impressive national network of campaign donors. So has McNeely, in his own way; his show airs on more than 120 stations around the country.
If North is looking to speak directly to a nationwide audience of folks worked up over gun control - and willing to part with their money to elect someone who vows to fight it - North may have just reeled in another big one without anyone noticing.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB