THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 17, 1994 TAG: 9409170281
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Consistent to the end in being unpredictable, former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder got out of the senatorial race.
To my regret.
I can hear you say, ``How CAN the fool say that?''
It's purely personal.
What Wilder did was unsportsmanlike: calling for a primary rather than a convention to select the nominee, then ducking the primary, to which U.S. Sen. Charles S. Robb had acceded, and entering the general election as an independent.
But he is ever unconventional.
His mind so nimble, his wit so quick, Wilder enlivened the race that was dragging its feet.
In the third debate he needled Robb into an ill-advised discussion of the deficit. And he pinked Oliver North's pretensions.
When North went into that thrice-told tale of being the only candidate with a business of 23 employees, Wilder reminded him that he had headed a state government employing thousands and, in the process, refrained from raising taxes.
Still left to be explored more fully is how North ran the rogue enterprise as the ultimate insider during the Iran-Contra scam.
So I'll miss Wilder's sass. Only he would quote Chief Joseph: ``I will fight no more forever.''
``Until tomorrow!'' one of my colleagues added.
He is cocky, jaunty, with a sense of the comic in politics. Every time I saw him, in passing, he was laughing.
Detractors hint that Clinton traded to get him out of the race.
If Wilder turns up with a job in D.C., he has the brains and brass to shake the bureaucracy - and leave the president frustrate.
Some say that with Wilder away, North no longer can grin possumlike from a limb. He and Robb must mix it up. But maybe not.
More likely they'll shadowbox, two timorous heavyweights, one with a glass jaw, the other muscle-bound. You think Marshall Coleman will take Wilder's role?
If he has the sense God gave a goober, he will continue a sober, even dull, discussion of issues.
Coleman has husbanded funds for TV ads in October. He and his mentor, U.S. Sen. John Warner, plan to crisscross Virginia. Or as Coleman's driver, Henry Doggett, phrased it Thursday: ``Coleman and Warner to every corner.''
Their message to the voters: There is an alternative.
Robb's prospects improve with the opportunity to draw most of the black vote, which accounts for about 18 percent of the electorate.
Were he wise, he'd be in a black church, five or six of them, every Sunday between now and Nov. 8, bringing in the sheaves.
Having battered Robb in debate, Wilder may be able to say a word for his old foe. Who knows?
Even when news spread Wednesday that Wilder had canceled his schedule, nobody dared say for sure he would withdraw. As a friend, Norfolk Del. William P. Robinson, put it: ``He is the captain of his ship.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder enlivened the race, which had been
dragging.
KEYWORDS: U.S. SENATE RACE CANDIDATE by CNB