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

DATE: SUNDAY, October 23, 1994                   TAG: 9410240074
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NATION'S WRITERS OFFER OPINIONS ON ROBB, NORTH

Now that the candidates are exchanging televised character critiques, the Virginia Senate race has turned into Sex, Lies and Videotape. Various pundits, columnists and reporters from around the country continue to comment on the race. Many of the remarks focus on Oliver North. And increasingly, those following the race are trying to handicap it.

Lloyd Grove caught the spirit of the thing in The Washington Post (Oct.15):

``This week, as the Senate race in Virginia erupted in televised Armageddon ... Robb himself seemed oddly removed from the tumult, like a passerby happening upon a grisly accident.

``He's been reduced, more or less, to a single inglorious qualification, and Robb smiled ruefully as he stated it: `I'm the only person who actually stands between Ollie North and the United States Senate.'

``Yet many Virginia Democrats are in a panic over Robb's seemingly half-hearted attempts to take on his challenger, his reluctance to do what they know must be done: Carve Ollie up like a Smithfield ham.''

Chris Morris of the Canadian Press (Oct. 11) acknowledges that North is in tune with an increasingly conservative spirit:

``He's pro-hunting; pro-guns; anti-abortion; anti-liberal. ... He is still the gung-ho Marine whose boyish good looks and chestful of medals made patriotic hearts flutter'' in testimony before Congress.

Norris quotes a Richmond business man as saying: ``It sells. He's just the all-American boy. But then again everyone thought Chuck Robb was, as well. I think what you have here is a choice between two failed Boy Scouts.''

John Young of the Waco Tribune-Herald (Oct. 13) is among those who think Robb will prevail. Why? He tells of a friend who surfaced from the Vienna, Va., Metro subway station to find herself ``face-to-face, eye-to-steely-blue-eye, with the Republican nominee for Senate, Oliver North:

``There he was, `smaller than life,' as she put it, `and grayer, too.' She expected a towering, youthful figure with a chest thrust out to here. Towering, he was not.

``And North's presence was not as commanding as she thought, either. She stepped to the side and watched as commuters came within flesh-pressing distance, and she noted with amazement how many swerved out of North's reach and averted their gaze.''

Young believes that with former Gov. Douglas Wilder out of the race, ``the battle will be won in the political center. North can't rely on a religious-right fringe and Republican blue-bloods. He has to convince the average Joe coming off the Metro. Fat chance ...

``North must convince that individual that he's a man to be trusted, not some Lone Ranger who takes himself to be the law north, south, east and west of the Pecos. Just following orders.''

Yet, Young concludes that ``there's never been a more clear example of a candidate who, by his actions, has discredited himself in claiming to honor the Constitution and the institution in which he seeks to serve.

``It should be no surprise, then, to see people swerve out of his way at the subway station.''

By contrast, Sandy Grady, Washington columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, wrote (Oct. 13) that North has ``an excellent chance of winning a seat in the U.S. Senate to which he once lied - a victory his enemies say would be like Mike Tyson joining a girl's choir.''

But Grady gives North the edge only ``if his aides use duct tape - or better, welding - to clamp Oliver North's jaws for the next three weeks.

``Exaggeration and self-dramatization have always been to Ollie what double martinis are to an alcoholic. He can't get enough of them. ... ''

Grady believes North's ``motormouth bravado now threatens his shot at the Senate.

``Candidate North keeps juggling the truth like a hand grenade until it blows up. ... [North is] cut in the mold of his one-time hero, Reagan: Superb when following a right-wing script, dangerously reckless when he wings it.''

In short, ``Ollie may yet talk himself into big trouble. And that's no lie.''

Newsday (Oct. 11) expressed an editorial opinion on the race. It asks:

``Why should New Yorkers worry about a Virginia Senate race? Because a Who's Who of Republican presidential hopefuls - Bob Dole, Jack Kemp, Dan Quayle, James Baker, Phil Gramm - are supporting North in a crass display that shows they value the extreme right, the core of North's supporters, ahead of honesty ... Because North committed wrongs against our nation, our system of government and the rule of law. Because the perfidy that has marked the man's career has no place in public life.''

Compiled by Keith Monroe of Landmark News Service with assistance by researcher Peggy Earle.

Keywords:
POLITICS

by CNB