Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 8, 1994 TAG: 9410100056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ARLINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"Over the years, many people who have known Oliver North well have marveled at the exaggerations and misrepresentations he has brought to the public arena," Webb said during a news conference at the Iwo Jima Memorial with U.S. Sen. Charles Robb.
"You can't build ethics in government if you don't have ethical people in government."
Webb, a classmate of North's at the U.S. Naval Academy and Naval chief under President Reagan, said he was saddened that several former Reagan administration officials who still privately voice reservations about North's fitness to serve have publicly endorsed him.
"The message they're sending is that conduct which has betrayed the public trust can be excused when political expediency is at stake," said Webb, who declined to name names.
Some Republican leaders came in for even harsher criticism Friday from Lawrence Walsh, the special prosecutor who took North to court during the Iran-Contra scandal.
In an interview with New York Newsday, Walsh accused Sen. Bob Dole, former Secretary of State James Baker and others of a ``shocking display'' of hypocrisy for supporting North. ``To see that group coalescing around North - it's a party problem,'' Walsh said.
North shrugged off Webb's comments as "sour grapes" from their Naval Academy days when North beat Webb in the Navy boxing championship.
Webb refrained from making public statements about North after the then-Marine emerged as a central figure in the Iran-Contra scandal in the mid-1980s. North was convicted of three felonies: destroying documents, providing misleading information to Congress and receiving an illegal gratuity. An appeals court later overturned the convictions on grounds that testimony North gave a congressional panel in 1987 under a promise of immunity may have been used against him.
Webb said he decided to break his silence after polls showed North doing better than expected and after The Wall Street Journal published an article in which North belittled Robb's military record.
Several other former military officers - including retired Marine Col. Roger Barnard, Robb's commanding officer in Vietnam - turned up at the Iwo Jima Memorial to rebut North's characterization.
In the mid-1960s, Robb was assigned to a ceremonial post in the White House, where he met and married Lynda Bird Johnson, the daughter of then-President Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1968, Robb went to Vietnam as a Marine captain to command a rifle company.
Barnard said Robb served with distinction in combat despite efforts from above to keep the president's son-in-law out of harm's way. Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, a Democrat, said the Senate race is not a question of which candidate was the best military officer.
"This is about who lied and who told the truth," Kerrey said.
William Cowan, a Naval Academy graduate who served three years in Vietnam, took issue with North's past embellishments of his military record.
Cowan referred to a New York civil trial in 1985, when North testified under oath that he served two tours in Vietnam, commanded a company and worked in special operations. Cowan said North served one term in Vietnam, commanded a platoon and was not involved in the "black world" of intelligence.
North, campaigning in the Roanoke Valley on his 51st birthday, declined to respond directly to the accusations. "I'm not going to get down in the gutter with Chuck Robb," he said. "This isn't about my service. This isn't about his service. It's about his lousy service as a U.S. senator.
"They know they can't run on the issues. So what do they do? They try to dirty somebody up. They sit in the corner like pouty kids making mudballs."
The third Senate candidate, independent Marshall Coleman, gave a speech in Williamsburg on Friday in which he blasted North's inaccurate statements.
"As [Sen.] John Warner notes, with each passing day, the distance between what is true and false in the public's mind, and what is true and false in Oliver North's mind, grows further and further," Coleman said.
Staff writer Dwayne Yancey and The Washington Post contributed to this report.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB