THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 11, 1994 TAG: 9409090278
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: John Pruitt
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
No sooner had the debate ended - you know, that event in front of a lily-white audience of wahooing young Republicans at Hampden-Sydney College - than a caller was on the line with a radio commentator, declaring former governor L. Douglas Wilder a ``junkyard dog.''
Now that may sound low-down, but there was a tone of admiration in the caller's voice. And well there should have been.
No matter what you may think of the brassy politician, Mr. Wilder on Thursday night showed his Senate opponents that his polish still shines.
That junkyard-dog moniker didn't come from being a nice guy. While he can be as smooth as a cream-laden drink, Mr. Wilder is masterful at clamping his prey with damaging teeth and, like a jungle predator, shaking it until it lies limp.
Of the four candidates, he was the only one with so much as a hint of a sense of humor.
Sen. Charles S. Robb, bless his heart, could as easily have been replaced with one of those life-size cutouts we see at movie theaters. He gives stilted new meaning.
While supposedly trying to look senatorial, he looked instead as if had a bad attack of gas, and his speech was about as dramatic as a reading of the Congressional Record. That's a shame because, unlike the wannabe's, he talks reality.
When he decided to get dramatic - about as out of place for Chuck Robb as Prince Charles doing the achy-breaky - he put his foot in his mouth so far that he'll spend the rest of the campaign trying to extricate it.
You remember: that line about taking food from the mouths of widows and babes. The groan was heard around the commonwealth. And when he attempted to explain, who but ol' Junkyard Dog himself went on the attack: No, Chuck, it wasn't just extreme; it was stupid.
Oliver North, he who makes part of his living selling to police vests to protect them from guns that he opposes regulating, is a wind-up doll.
Put him anywhere, wind him up and hear the same lines he's been delivering since the days when he was on the speech circuit as a non-candidate.
Non-candidate? Sure! That's just why he was on the circuit, endearing himself as the darling of right-wing Republicans.
He's been uttering that business about being the most-investigated man in America so long he fully expected it to get the warm reception Thursday night that it's gotten from admirers during stump speeches.
He'd just overlooked that Junkyard Dog was unleashed. As quickly as a tail wag, Wilder snapped that there just might be plenty of reasons for those investigations.
Marshall Coleman just showed why he's such a non-entity of this campaign. He spent so much time agreeing with other candidates that it's hard to remember any of his own ideas.
He has at least one vote, though, from Sen. John W. Warner - who's being vilified by many Republicans for declaring Mr. North unfit for office because of his Iran-Contra involvement. Mr. Warner apparently is unwilling to draw that fine line between lying under oath and lying not under oath, and just doesn't buy the notion that he should support any Republican who's electable.
There are many reasons why Mr. Wilder left the rest of the pack in the chase: (1) He's a showman, ``on'' in front of an audience. (2) He's not Oliver North or Chuck Robb. As an outsider, he can risk being funny, vicious or viciously funny without the same repercussions. (3) He's a politician of the first order.
That may not change many votes. The ol' Junkyard Dog still knows a few tricks. MEMO: Comments? Call Comment Line: 446-2494.
by CNB