Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 2, 1994 TAG: 9411030054
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LINWOOD HOLTON
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
And in their wake slithers a host of Republican figures, many of national prominence and with poorly disguised presidential hankerings, paying grim obeisance to the party's disastrous choice to oppose Democrat Chuck Robb for Virginia's U.S. Senate seat.
Oliver North's campaign has thrust Republicans into the politician's most dreaded quandary - pitting principle head-to-head against party loyalty, and actually forcing them to choose between the two. The result, nationally and in my beloved home state of Virginia, has been a sad display of massive soul-selling at the altar of political expediency.
North's demagogic campaign has sent out appeals to those feeling disillusioned and disenfranchised, to voters fed up with politics as usual and looking for an antidote to Washington callousness and corruption. Yet it conveniently obscures the fact that North is no stranger to Washington political insiderism, and that his own history reeks of the very corruption he claims he is so well-equipped to combat.
North says he will defend traditional values. As it happens, one of the most fundamental values I hold dear is respect for the Constitution and the rule of law. Yet I can remember watching television seven years ago as a young Marine lieutenant colonel, all decked out in his uniform and medals, sat before a congressional panel and admitted to activities clearly proscribed by law. And did so with in-your-face bravado and an utter lack of contrition or regret.
In his role in the Iran-Contra affair, North displayed a callous disregard for the Constitution and the very Congress he now so avidly desires to join. In fact, he took it upon himself to overrule the Congress, zealously pursuing activities in support of the Nicaraguan rebels at a time when such support was prohibited by law. His creativity in breaching the law apparently knew no bounds, as the revelations of his diversion of profits from Iranian arms sales to the Contras attested.
Confronted by members of Congress, North admittedly lied to them about his actions. Then, when scandal erupted, he first refused to testify, hiding behind the Fifth Amendment, and later agreed to take the stand only with a grant of congressional immunity from prosecution for the bombshells he was about to drop. And, when the heat was turned up, he performed the classic ducking maneuver, the one so favored by defendants at Nuremberg: It was orders, he said. He was only a lieutenant colonel, and he had only been following orders - a claim those White House officials to whom he had answered expressly denied.
A later federal trial brought North up on criminal charges. It should not be forgotten that in that trial, North was convicted on three felony counts: aiding and abetting the obstruction of Congress, shredding official documents, and accepting an illegal gratuity (the infamous security fence around his home).
He escaped sentencing for these convictions by a technical whisker after his lawyers argued that his earlier immunized testimony may have influenced witnesses at his trial. The appeal had nothing to do with the incontrovertible evidence of his crimes. But for this skin of-the-teeth reprieve, Oliver North, as a convicted felon, would not be allowed to run for public office today. Yet, in his stumping around Virginia, he has implied more than once that somehow the appeal expunged the record and effectively cleared his name.
North would like nothing better than for everyone to forget his past. Appallingly, many of my fellow Republicans have agreed to conspire in his cynical exercise in collective amnesia. And ominously, following their lead, many voters appear poised to do the same. The blemishes on North's past, however, do not represent minor peccadilloes. They represent serious violations of the rule of law, and of the rules of official and personal conduct by which honest men and women, patriotic Americans and good citizens strive to lead their lives. And, if so many of the men and women who worked closely with North are to be believed, they represent a persistent pattern of behavior.
That an unrepentant Oliver North would dare today to present himself as the champion of these rules and the keeper of Virginia's flame in the U.S. Senate strikes me as the height of arrogance.
I am a lifelong Republican, dedicated to my party and its principles, and I hold my association with it dear. As Virginia's first Republican governor, I have especially meaningful ties to the commonwealth's GOP. Yet when I see my party behave as it did, allowing a convention dominated by a small faction of zealous supporters to nominate a man like Oliver North, I cannot accept its actions.
Early in his efforts to organize his campaign, North telephoned and asked me for my help. I didn't have to stop to think about my answer. I told him I could never support his candidacy.
Oliver North may question my values. Others may accuse me of betrayal. I prefer to think I'm being a good Republican - and a good American.
Linwood Holton is a former Republican governor of Virginia.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB