THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 15, 1994 TAG: 9410150210
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
House Speaker Dan Blue will be in the United States delegation escorting Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide back to power today.
``They wanted a broad spectrum of people in the delegation,'' Blue said Friday before leaving for Washington. ``I represent a broad cross-section of people around America and in North Carolina.''
Blue said he considered it an honor ``to witness first-hand the rebirth of democracy in Haiti that President Clinton talked about when he made the decision to deploy troops.''
Blue, one of the Clinton presidential campaign's three co-chairmen in North Carolina in 1992, said he had supported Clinton both publicly and privately in trips around the country in the past few weeks.
``I talked to folks around the country about it,'' he said of his selection. ``I guess my name just came up on the Rolodex.''
Former Attorney General Lacy Thornburg, another of the Clinton campaign's state co-chairs, recently was nominated for a federal judgeship, and Jeanette Hyde was named ambassador to Barbados.
Hyde was involved in generating support for the Haiti mission from other Caribbean countries, Blue said, which might also have helped in his own selection.
Blue said he would spend the day ``gaining impressions to talk to the president about. You can pick up a lot of things from the cameras, but you get a much better feel for things when you're actually on the ground.''
Blue, a Raleigh lawyer and Robeson County native, has been in the General Assembly since 1981 and is running unopposed for re-election this year.
He has been speaker of the House since 1990 and is expected to retain the post in the next legislative session.
Aristide, 41, is Haiti's first democratically elected president. He was driven from power by a military coup in 1991 and has lived in the United States since then.
U.S. troops, including units from Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune, were on their way to invade Haiti last month before a last-minute agreement averted a hostile invasion.
The military leaders who overthrew Aristide left Haiti this week, clearing the way for Aristide's return. by CNB