
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, August 29, 1994                   TAG: 9410120010
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

NORTH, THE MAN

THE NATIONAL Abortion Rights Action League criticized Senate candidate Oliver North last week, which criticism was quickly condemned by a North campaign aide as an attempt to help incumbent U.S. Sen. Charles Robb, who supports abortion rights.

Predictable stuff. But the North aide's phrasing is notable. "Maybe," he said, "if Chuck Robb would get off his duff and campaign for himself, he wouldn't have to hide behind the skirts of extremists like NARAL."

Hide behind skirts? Hmmm. Might be reading too much into this - but is a theme emerging?

Last month, North said Robb "has traded in his military uniform for a cheerleader's outfit for the Clinton administration."

This in turn seemed to echo North's earlier, derisive reference to Clinton staffers as young men wearing earrings. Not to mention Pat Buchanan's mocking of "cross-dressing" Democrats in a speech to the Republican National Convention.

Some will remember North, no sissy he, getting in trouble before he was nominated for making, during a public speech, a lisping joke about homosexuals in the military.

All of which might seem to give issues, along with deviants and perhaps women and children and other weaklings, a back seat to the question North apparently wants to pose in this campaign/culture war: Who's the manliest candidate here?

Keywords:
POLITICS

by CNB