Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 19, 1994 TAG: 9411230031
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN GOOLRICK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Don't get me wrong, I dutifully voted for you, though I would have preferred Jim Miller.
But the plain, unvarnished fact is that as a result of this election, one of Virginia's two U.S. senators, Charles S. Robb by name, will have to swim against the powerful tide of sentiment expressed by Americans from coast to coast on election night.
That is, while the mood of the country is by far predominantly attuned to trimming the sails of big government, Robb has little choice but to support the further expansion of Big Brotherism.
Once a moderate-conservative governor and the leader of the so-called New Democrat faction that sought to take the Democratic Party back to the center, Robb owes his political survival to a bevy of special interests that all tend to veer away from the strong feeling of most citizens that the federal government intrudes far too much into their pocketbooks and personal lives.
Robb couldn't possibly have been elected had he not made a conscious effort to rally behind him those elements of his party that still believe that big government isn't the problem but the answer. He wouldn't be returning to Washington were it not for the backing of black leaders, labor unions, gays, feminist organizations, education unions and assorted liberals of the Hillary and Bill Clinton stripe.
In the old days, I watched as Robb campaigned masterfully in rural and semi-rural parts of Virginia, where pickup truck after pickup truck had "Sportsmen for Robb" bumper stickers. But the vote that narrowly re-elected him resulted from his deliberate turning away from the center to cater to the element of his party that still longs fondly for The Great Society programs promulgated by his late father-in-law.
Don't get me wrong. Robb supporters have every right to back someone who favors their agenda. It's simply that he's now the captive of the very liberal wing of the party he felt had become too dominant.
The new Congress may be much less friendly to President Clinton than the old one, but does anyone think that Virginia's junior senator won't go off the cliff for whatever programs Clinton tries to enact?
After all, didn't the president come to Northern Virginia three times to raise money for Robb? And he would have come even farther south if Robb hadn't told him that once you left Fairfax you were in North Carolina.
I like Robb personally. Still get a Christmas card for him each year. At least, until this year. Whatever personal problems he's had are his own business.
And yet it was those problems that got him into the political fix he found himself in this year. Once the most popular politician in Virginia, even touted for the presidency, when his popularity plummeted like a falling rock, he was forced to circle the wagon and call in Doug Wilder, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, President Clinton, and various labor bosses to pull his fat out of the fire.
He won, but finds his base so narrowed that he can no longer even pretend to be one of those New Democrats seeking reasonable and moderate solutions to problems.
Instead, he'll have to cast the kind of votes that seek to keep more and more folks feeding at the public trough. He'll have to cast votes that help further tear down the nation's defenses.
Having said all that, I concede that Robb won fair and square. And I understand the old rule of politics that you must try to keep in step with your base constituency.
So long, New Democrat Robb. Hello, Sen. Ted Robb.
What a fine mess, Ollie. Too bad Stan Laurel isn't around to see it.
John Goolrick, a former political reporter, is now an aide to 1st District Rep. Herbert Bateman.
by CNB