THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 1, 1994 TAG: 9410010301
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DWAYNE YANCEY, LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
Vice President Al Gore battered Oliver L. North with the verbal punches Democrats have longed to hear this campaign, blasting the Republican Senate nominee Friday night as a ``liar'' with a long ``record of deceit'' that would make him unfit to hire for any job, much less the Senate.
An uncharacteristically feisty Gore, speaking to a Democratic rally in downtown Roanoke, appealed to Virginians' sense of honor to reject North as the ``colonel of untruth'' whose felony convictions were overturned on what he labeled a ``technicality.''
``This is the state of Thomas Jefferson,'' Gore told more than 200 people who paid $25 per person to hear him pitch Sen. Charles S. Robb's re-election at the Roanoke City Market Building. ``This is the commonwealth that has always put a premium on personal integrity and honor. Now you're being asked to hire someone to represent you in the United States Senate who comes not recommended by his former employers, who when asked what they think about you hiring him, say `no way.' ''
Gore ticked off a long list of former Reagan and Bush administration officials - including former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell and retired Desert Storm General Norman Schwarzkopf - who have publicly expressed doubts and misgivings about North.
Gore likened North to a job applicant who comes in ``like a ball of fire'' and initially impresses an employer with his ``slick'' talk.
``You're tempted'' to hire him, Gore said, an allusion to the momentum North has developed during the summer and the slight lead he holds in the most recent polls. ``But then when you check with the last person he worked for, and his previous employer says `he's a liar. He disgraced himself in his last job.' And when you ask his immediate superior, his immediate superior says `no way' '' - the latter a reference to former National Security Adviser Robert ``Bud'' McFarlane.
It was the strongest denunciation that Democrats have leveled at North so far - and certainly the most high-profile.
Gore also made a point of praising Virginia's Republican senator, John Warner, who has bucked his party to back independent J. Marshall Coleman. It's Warner's rejection of North, Gore said, ``that means the most to me'' because, unlike the former Reagan and Bush officials, Warner ``has something to lose'' by attacking North.
Granted, Gore said, North's convictions were set aside on a ``technical reversal.'' But at a time when the nation's top concern is crime, Gore asked, ``what kind of message that does send to the young people'' if Virginians elect North?
Democratic leaders across the state have complained lately that Robb's campaign has been too sluggish - and that their own party activists haven't been energized yet to work on his behalf. That didn't seem to be a problem Friday.
Robb at one point pounded the lectern and declared, ``It's time we start telling it like it is.'' He then blistered North for ``pandering'' to voters by promising to cut taxes while increasing defense spending and protecting Social Security and other popular programs.
``We'd all like to live in that kind of world,'' Robb said. ``That's Ollie's world. That's not the real world.''
The tough talk about North was greeted with a roar of approval by party activists.
``The real campaign has started,'' said Susan Swecker, a Richmond lawyer who traveled across the state to the $1,000-per-person fund-raiser Gore attended earlier in the evening at an office building on the City Market. ``This is a really enthusiastic crowd.''
That's something Robb hasn't seen much of this year, especially in Southwest Virginia, where polls show North doing his best, and Robb his worst.
Gore's visit to Roanoke should help change that, predicted Roanoke Sheriff Al Hudson. ``He needs the support up in this part of the state. North is doing a terrific job getting the people, and Robb has been tied down in Congress. He hasn't been able to do the campaigning he'd like to. Basically, this will wake some Democrats up and get them involved in his campaign.''
KEYWORDS: CANDIDATE U.S. SENATE RACE
by CNB