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

DATE: SATURDAY, February 18, 1995                   TAG: 9502220018
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BURN IT

He also delivered a stormy speech the other day to a convention of 2,000 conservative activists in Washington, D.C.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch quotes North as telling the crowd (while vendors hawked Bill Clinton toilet paper and T-shirts declaring, "I Love Animals - They're Delicious!") that the new congressional majority isn't carrying the Republican revolution far enough.

"We didn't elect a Congress of artsy-fartsy gardeners to simply go up and prune back the poison ivy," North thundered. "We want it torn down and burned."

This rhetoric seemed to excite conventioneers who crowded around North to buy autographed copies of his biography. "For those of you who want me to run again," he reassured them, "keep your powder dry. There is a future."

One fan from Arlington predicted enthusiastically that North's "best years are yet to come, if he can get elected. His chances get better all the time. White men are getting organized . . . ."

Our respect for voters' wisdom in rejecting North's Senate candidacy has diminished, since November, not one smidgen.