Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 25, 1995 TAG: 9506260119
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WALTER R. MEARS/Associated Press
DATELINE: PHOENIX LENGTH: Medium
From the vantage of his house above the city, and of his 86 years, Barry Goldwater looks over the valley and talks political heresy: given the right presidential candidate, he might just turn into a Democrat.
And his right candidate isn't the one he has endorsed.
It's Colin Powell, retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who hasn't said which party he'd run in, should he decide to enter the 1996 campaign. Goldwater guesses Republican, but said that, independent or even Democrat, Powell would still be his first choice for the White House.
His old Republican establishment won't like that, but so what.
``I just sit out here and say to hell with them,'' Goldwater said. The man whose name long was a synonym for conservative Republican was cantankerous then, and he's more so now. It has been 31 years since he was trounced for the White House, nine since his final farewell to the Senate. The step is slowed, the memory not always reliable, but the voice and the profile are firm and unmistakable.
He's talking politics, at his desk beside the glass wall that looks out over the Phoenix skyline, territory he remembers as open desert, now worth $1 million for two acres. He knows, he said, because he just sold a lot down the hill.
Goldwater is supporting Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, the majority leader and front-runner for the 1996 Republican nomination. ``That's a peculiar situation,'' he says, and pauses. ``But don't say anything.''
He is, for Dole, honorary state chairman of the senator's campaign. ``I'm honored to have Senator Goldwater on my team,'' Dole said three weeks ago when he came to Phoenix to campaign and raise funds for 1996. ``I remember back in '64 I was on his team.''
Goldwater had a reception at his home for $1,000 Dole contributors, about 100 of them. ``A little gathering of fat cats,'' he recalls. Even so, he would prefer Powell, describes him as the challenger with the best chance of leading a Republican ticket that would beat President Clinton.
``If Powell decides to run, he'll get elected president,'' Goldwater said. ``If he runs as a Democrat, I might turn into a Democrat.''
His theory, though, and he was chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is that Powell really is a Republican, because most military men tend that way although they won't say. ``I was trying to get him to tell me,'' Goldwater said, but Powell wouldn't do it.
Absent Powell, Goldwater said, ``then Dole will get it,'' at least the nomination. ``We're not going to have an easy time beating Clinton,'' he said. ``This guy makes a hell of a good speech. He's a good thinker.''
So, Goldwater ventures another option: Dole and Powell on the same ticket. ``The next time around, they could just switch places,'' he said.
Goldwater likes blunt talk, and obviously enjoys the fallout. He has caused stirs by backing abortion rights and gays in the military., by endorsing a liberal Democrat in an Arizona congressional race in 1992 - she won but lost two years later.
``People say that I'm more of a libertarian than a Republican,'' Goldwater said. ``I don't think there's a lot of difference.''
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB