THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 3, 1994 TAG: 9411030418
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARGARET EDDS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Long : 139 lines
Under fire about his views on the Confederate flag, Oliver L. North on Wednesday berated the press for misrepresenting him and offered a liberally revised version of 6-week-old remarks.
Declining a transcript of North's original statements, the Republican's campaign said the new version will stand through the Nov. 8 U.S. Senate election.
North's updated account, similar to one called into question a month ago, is substantially different from notes of his original comments, made Sept. 21 in Danville.
North said Wednesday that a story published in The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star after that event misrepresented remarks in which he defended the constitutionality of flying the historic flag over buildings that don't get federal funds.
That story and subsequent accounts have become an issue in a U.S. Senate campaign that has seen racial divisiveness emerge as a flashpoint in the final week. North has accused his Democratic rival, incumbent Charles S. Robb, of pandering to racist fears for comparing him to former Ku Klux Klan leader and Louisiana politician David Duke.
On Wednesday, insurance underwriter Corey Walker asked North during a Charlottesville campaign appearance how he and other African-American voters could support a candidate who defends display of the Confederate flag.
North launched an elaborate explanation, saying that he was merely defending the 1st and 10th amendments of the Constitution and their protection of free speech and limits on federal power.
At the Danville event in September, however, North said nothing about the amendments when asked whether he supports the goals of a Confederate appreciation group.
``Yeah, I'm not a political-correctness freak,'' North said then. ``I believe this state has a great heritage.''
Asked Wednesday about the discrepancy, spokesman Mark Merritt said the only reason North didn't mention the amendments in Danville was because he wasn't asked about them.
``If you had asked him, he would have,'' Merritt said.
At the close Wednesday of North's speech to about 300 employees of the State Farm Insurance Co., Merritt was offered a transcript of North's September remarks.
It wouldn't be necessary, he said. ``That's going to be his answer till the end of this campaign.''
Later, Merritt termed his remark an offhand comment, made to appease a reporter whom North had just singled out in his speech as the author of the original flag story.
``I just felt like you were taking it personally. I didn't know you were doing a story,'' said Merritt, adding that he'd be happy to see a transcript.
``It's OK when the press says terrible things about Ollie North, but it's not OK when Ollie North says terrible things about the press. . . . You made a mountain out of a molehill the first time, and I believe you're doing it again,'' he said.
The initial flag report came after a day in which North campaigned across Southside Virginia.
At his final rally, members of the Heritage Preservation Association - a national Confederate appreciation group that has championed flying the Confederate flag over a Danville museum - held a banner and mingled in the crowd.
When R. Wayne Byrd, president of the Danville chapter, approached North after the rally, North took note of Byrd's T-shirt - which bore a small image of the Confederate flag and the words ``Heritage Not Hate.''
``It's part of the great heritage of this state of Virginia, and there's absolutely no reason for political correctness,'' North said.
Asked a few minutes later whether he supported the goals of the association, North said he did.
North went on to say that he likes to tell a story - ``I don't know whether it's apocryphal or not'' - about President Lincoln asking a band playing on the White House lawn the night before his assassination to replay a beautiful song. The song turned out to be ``Dixie.''
According to North's story, Lincoln said to ``play it again twice because enough people have died on both sides in this war that we should all enjoy such beautiful music.''
``That's not a racial slur, that's not political incorrectness. . . . (It's) paying homage to great people who died in a terrible war,'' North said.
He added that the ability to elevate symbols helps people heal from the wounds of war.
A press aide ended the questioning, saying that North needed to get to another event.
Wednesday, North began his response to Walker's question by saying, ``I reject the notion that I've come late to embracing any community in Virginia.'' He noted that 17 of 23 employees in his armored-vest company are minorities and that he for many years has visited black churches.
``I find it offensive that the media has described me as something other than what I am,'' North said. ``The comments I made in Danville, Virginia, in response to a reporter's question . . . I believe that reporter might even be here . . . were in answer to a question and not part of my prepared remarks, as to how did I feel, and I'm paraphrasing it because it was some months ago, how did I feel about the fact that there was a museum in Danville that would occasionally fly the Confederate Flag.
``And I said to her, and I'm paraphrasing and just amplifying on it, what I said directly, that that was an issue not for the United States Senate. There is a 10th Amendment and there is a 1st Amendment in our Constitution, and I believe in both of them strongly.
``The 10th Amendment to our Constitution states that there are certain things that the federal government has no business intervening in. One of those issues, I believe, ought to be that one (the Confederate flag), among others. A whole array of 10th Amendment issues - to include EPA's decision on how we're going to monitor emissions in our automobiles - ought to be left up to the state of Virginia. And I gave that as an example.
``I also have told reporters when they've asked me about that question before, that the flag that flies over my house, at my home, is the flag I fought for and bled for and I saw people die for. . . . I'm not asking other people to fly any other flag.
``I'm going to serve as your United States senator as well as every Hispanic-American, every Asian-American and every Anglo-American. I'm going to represent your values.
``I well understand that that is a symbol that is offensive and personal to many African Americans. But I would suggest to you that the federal government coming in to tell us what flag we're going to fly over a building that doesn't receive federal funds is not the purview of the U.S. government.''
He concluded: ``I quite frankly feel that my comments were misrepresented in Danville. The press has tried to describe me as coming late to the minority community here in Virginia, and I find it to be personally offensive.''
North was reminded of the difference in the two versions when he made similar comments before high school students about a month ago.
The difference between North's first take on the Confederate flag and the one he offered Wednesday in Charlottesville, explained Merritt, is ``the difference between a five-word answer and a 500-word answer.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Wednesday: North said he had defended the 1st and 10th Amendments of
the constitution and their protection of free speech and limits on
federal power.
Sept. 21: North said nothing about the 1st and 10th Amendments when
asked whether he supports the goals of a Confederate appreciation
group.
KEYWORDS: CANDIDATE U.S. SENATE RACE VIRGINIA by CNB