Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 31, 1994 TAG: 9410310082
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
In yet another sign of the deep reservoir of support North has tapped into during his campaign for the U.S. Senate, more than 1,000 people squeezed into the National Guard Armory to hear him speak; one city parks and recreation worker said he counted 1,500.
Longtime Republicans, from Rep. Bob Goodlatte on down, said it was the biggest crowd they'd ever seen at a political rally in the Roanoke Valley.
"Enthusiasm," Goodlatte explained. "People want change."
North offered plenty of that during his talk, one of a series at large-scale rallies his campaign staged around the state over the weekend to fire up volunteers as they begin the final push of phone-calling and door-knocking to turn out supporters to the polls on Nov. 8.
North, accompanied by his wife, Betsy, on one of the few campaign appearances she has made this fall, declared himself the front-runner in the three-way race and directed as much fire at President Clinton and the news media as he did at Democratic incumbent Charles Robb.
North warned supporters that "the White House and the liberal media are desperate to keep control" and "they will stoop to no level that is too deep" over the next nine days.
But North, clad in the plaid shirt that's become his trademark, reveled in the prospect of victory.
"All those out there in that liberal media and all those out there in that Clinton White House are going to have to learn to deal with it," North declared. "They are going to have to deal with me as senator of the commonwealth of Virginia."
North vowed that he'd be "the most active U.S. senator you have ever heard of" and said that's another reason why his opponents want to stop him.
"You know I keep my commitments no matter how much trouble I get into," he said, invoking a phrase he's used to explain his actions during the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages affair.
Most of North's address consisted of standard conservative lines - in favor of cutting taxes, cutting spending, beefing up defense. His only references to recent events on the campaign trail were twin blasts at Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.
"They've even come out and attacked my patriotism," North said, alluding to the ruckus earlier this month when he said Clinton had "gutted" the American military so badly it couldn't win a second Persian Gulf War.
"Ladies and gentleman, it's the height of hypocrisy for the Clinton White House to attack my patriotism," he said. The line drew perhaps the biggest ovation from a crowd that wanted to cheer just about everything North had to say.
North also singed Gore for the second day in a row for describing North supporters as "the extra-chromosome right wing," a phrase for which Gore later apologized, saying it was "insensitive" to those with Down's syndrome, a genetic condition characterized by an extra chromosome.
"Al Gore took an insulting, cheap shot at you - my supporters - and in doing so insulted all Americans," North said. "It is a moral outrage."
Judging from the tenor of the crowd, not even former first lady Nancy Reagan's attack on North as someone who "lied to my husband and lied about my husband" has had much of an impact on North's supporters.
"I think she showed that little brain she's got," snapped Lucille Garst of Roanoke. "She's probably going to get something in return for that."
Garst, like many North supporters, said it was impossible to believe that North was a renegade officer acting on his own during Iran-Contra.
"He took orders from higher ups and he didn't do a thing on his own," Garst said.
Former President Ronald Reagan ``was a delegater. He stayed at Camp David and rode horses all the time'' while his underlings carried out his orders, she said.
Republican activists said the real significance of Sunday's rally wasn't what North had to say, or even how many people he said it to - but the type of people they were.
"You've got a minimum of party people and more of Joe Voter out there," said longtime GOP worker Trixie Averill of Roanoke County.
"We get assailed for being country-club Republicans," said state Sen. Brandon Bell of Roanoke County, "but I looked out in the crowd and didn't see that. Ten years ago, you wouldn't have seen that kind of crowd. We've changed the party and broadened it."
Averill was delighted to contrast North's rally Sunday with a Robb rally scheduled for Tuesday night at Democratic headquarters in a downtown Roanoke office building.
"They didn't hire a hall, because they knew they couldn't fill it," Averill said. "They're going to have it in their rinky-dink headquarters with maybe 50 people."
Actually, Democrats are talking up a turnout of 250.
"Whoop-de-do," Averill said. "Their 250 people are going to be core Democrats, and the VEA [Virginia Education Association] and other ancillary coalitions. We've got the public, ordinary people, coming here."
Many North supporters brought handmade signs, some attacking the news media. One man waved a sign with a hammer and sickle that read simply, "The Press." Another waved a sign that declared, "The Roanoke Times lies."
And then there was 7-year-old Charles Sublett of Roanoke, who drew "Oliver North for Us" stickers for his parents, Judy and Don.
Why is the youngster supporting North?
"To get rid of Bill Clinton," he said.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB