ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, September 16, 1996 TAG: 9609160091
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DON'T LOOK for John Warner or Mark Warner ever to run for president. Not after the way John and, to a lesser extent, Mark, have dissed an entire section of the country - a section that happens to include New Hampshire, site of the first presidential primary.
No, the Warner boys, unrelated, apparently believe there's no higher honor than representing Virginia in the U.S. Senate - the job they're now competing for.
What's New Hampshire got to do with it? Not a darn thing. But you might not know it from some of the candidates' exchanges.
Republican John Warner, the incumbent, has accused Democrat Mark Warner, the challenger, of being a ``Connecticut Yankee.'' Which is to say, not a true Virginian.
John Warner, meantime, doesn't remind voters that he was born on the Yankee side of the Potomac, in Washington, D. C. But never mind. The Man Without a State has lived in Virginia - albeit Northern Virginia - for much of his life, and he can explain the accident of his birth by saying he wanted to be with his mother at the time.
Mark Warner, born in Indianapolis, moved to Connecticut before moving to (Northern) Virginia a number of years ago. But he seems to take great umbrage at being labeled a New Englander. He is, he says, ``a Virginian by choice.''
So, too, according to the Census Bureau, are about 46 percent of Virginia's residents. It is their cross to bear: They were not born in the Old Dominion.
Perhaps these people shouldn't be allowed to vote.
At the very least, Virginia could reinstate the literacy test for these outsiders. Going back to the creative quizzes crafted in an attempt to keep blacks from voting (some received postcards from Virginia election officials saying, ``Yo hav fald to rechister'') would be obviously inappropriate.
But perhaps anyone not born in Virginia who can't properly pronounce ``Botetourt'' should be barred from the polls.
LENGTH: Short : 42 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICS CONGRESSby CNB