Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 7, 1995 TAG: 9504080015
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICK NUNN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Apparently McSweeney had asked Warner for a rubber-stamp endorsement of Oliver North before the November elections. Warner refused to "support a felon." McSweeney's far-right coalition pushed through North's nomination against Warner's advice. Come the elections and there's a nationwide Republican landslide victory - except in Virginia! Why?
Virginians didn't reject North at the polls because Warner refused to endorse him. The voters apparently saw North as an overexuberant cowboy in foreign affairs who scoffed at the law while acting as aide to the president. North used Washington insider power while railing against the very Congress he was supposed to be serving.
A small, but desperate, faction of gone-too-far-right-wingers stand red-faced and fighting mad because they misread Virginia's electorate in November. While a nationwide conservative tide swept other Republicans to victory, Virginia's GOP found itself high and dry in a holier-than-thou campaign that fell flat. Had they run Warner's choice, Marshall Coleman, there's no doubt that Coleman would have defeated politically crippled, Texas-born Chuck Robb.
Now, we're entering a dangerous time for Virginia's GOP. Patrick McSweeney openly blames Warner for all the party's woes, suggesting that Warner be dumped. McSweeney went so far as to ask former President Bush not to attend a fund-raising dinner for Warner in April. Bush, who benefited from Warner's active support in launching Operation Desert Storm, refused the request.
Was McSweeney blinded by North's aberrant celebrity and overawed by his political fund-raising acumen (mainly from out of the state)?
Let's keep in mind why John Warner, a native Virginian, is respected by the voters. Here are only three of the many reasons our electorate will stick by this man and re-elect him to the U.S. Senate in November:
Military service: Warner left high school at age 17, volunteering for Navy service as an enlisted man during World War II.
He left law school at UVa to serve his country during the Korean War, this time with the First Marine Air Wing.
Preparation for public service: Warner prepared himself for leadership in military affairs so successfully he became secretary of the Navy in 1972.
Senate voting record: Warner was one of three senators who received the top rating of 96 percent for his fiscally responsible voting record by the Concord Coalition in 1993.
McSweeney has to blame himself for losing the senatorial election last November. It wasn't John Warner who saddled Virginia's moderate conservatives with a candidate they could not support. The voters of Virginia understand that it took personal courage for Warner to obey his conscience and lay his political career on the line. And that's the kind of personal strength that can lead a few good men to even higher office.
Rick Nunn, of Blacksburg, is a retired educator.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB