ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, May 19, 1996 TAG: 9605200077
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BRIDGEWATER
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
REP. BOB GOODLATTE was nominated for a third term, and the Roanoke Republican declared that the GOP has cleaned up Congress "from top to bottom."
Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Roanoke seemed like the most beloved Republican in the land Saturday.
The GOP activists who gathered here for the 6th District Republican convention made it clear they don't think much of the party's U.S. senator, briefly heckling one of John Warner's surrogate speakers.
The district chairman even felt compelled to warn party members not to criticize presidential candidate Bob Dole's campaign. "If you feel the urge to say, `If I were running the Dole campaign, this is what I'd do,' please don't do that," Don Duncan told convention delegates. "Send him a wire or a fax or an e-mail instead." Republicans don't need to be beating up on each other in public, Duncan said.
But when it comes to Goodlatte - well, Goodlatte can do no wrong, at least in the eyes of the GOP activists.
"Bob Goodlatte is probably the most incredibly satisfying elected official we have in the 6th District," said Trixie Averill of Roanoke County. "You just feel so good. I sleep safer at night knowing he's up there making the right decisions. I don't question any of his votes."
Patricia Witten of Roanoke was just as emphatic. "I love Goodlatte," she said. "I think he's the perfect politician. I agree with the way he votes, but he doesn't make waves. He does it in a quiet way."
And so it went Saturday, as Republicans went about the business of nominating Goodlatte for a third term to represent the district that runs from Lynchburg to Roanoke to Harrisonburg.
With the party divided over its choice of a Senate candidate - Warner faces challenger Jim Miller in a June 11 primary - and with some Republicans grumbling that Dole's presidential campaign hasn't excited many people, Goodlatte was the one thing Republicans could agree on - and agree on enthusiastically.
Goodlatte used the occasion to review his four years in Washington and declare victory on many fronts, thanks to a GOP-controlled Congress.
When he first ran in 1992, he said, "the times were very, very different. After 40 years of iron-fisted one-party control of Congress, our `people's house' had become insulated, arrogant, pampered, privileged and pompous. Today, the Congress has been reformed from top to bottom. No more midnight pay raises. No more closed committee meetings. No more double standards with Congress passing laws and then exempting itself. We've put an end to this hypocrisy."
Goodlatte defended the GOP Congress on an issue Democrats have signalled they'll make a top talking point - Medicare.
"President Clinton's own commission has determined that Medicare will go bankrupt in five years. But [Democrats] don't have the courage to do anything about it. We care enough about saving Medicare for our seniors to offer a plan that saves Medicare while still increasing health-care spending for each senior from $4,800 this year to $7,300 in 2002. Only in Washington, D.C., can this be called a cut."
Goodlatte also talked up his record on issues closer to home - his role in getting the proposed Interstate 73 routed through the Roanoke Valley, creating the Mount Pleasant National Scenic Area in Amherst County, co-sponsoring legislation to preserve Civil War battlefields in the Shenandoah Valley.
"We've made a difference in Washington," he said. "And that difference is fundamental. No more is it assumed that all of our problems can and should be solved by a huge, impersonal bureaucracy in Washington, D.C."
Goodlatte faces Democratic nominee Jeffrey Grey, a telecommunication repairman and union leader from Rockbridge County, in November. Republicans profess little concern that he'll pose a threat to Goodlatte. "I'm not exactly going to lose sleep over [the prospect of] Bob losing his seat," Averill said. "But I know Bob. He's nothing if not tenacious, and he'll fight as if he's going up against Bill Clinton himself."
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Goodlatte. color. KEYWORDS: POLITICS CONGRESSby CNB