THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 26, 1994 TAG: 9411260045
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B01 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
The high command of the Virginia Republican Party is beginning to catch up with reality, although it still has a way to go.
Never mind. That first step is the most important among 10,000 from the tar pit of stupidity along the high trail to enlightenment.
Excelsior!
Don't despair the long journey!
The supreme ones have about decided they won't try to punish U.S. Sen. John Warner for supporting independent candidate J. Marshall Coleman instead of party nominee Oliver L. North in the recent race for the U.S Senate.
That's sound. They wouldn't have achieved anything except to reveal themselves as deluded and render Warner a martyr.
Countless Virginians and many members of the U.S. Senate are grateful to Warner for standing between them and North, a fate even worse than Democratic nominee Charles S. Robb.
When, early in the campaign, Warner found North of Iran-Contra fame unfit to sit in the Senate, members from both sides rushed to shake his hand.
Several had to be restrained from kissing it.
Now party longheads have decided it would not be in Virginia's best interest to try to get GOP leaders in the Senate to deny Warner a choice committee assignment.
That word, reported by Tyler Whitley of The Times-Dispatch, comes from David Johnson, the Virginia GOP's executive director.
Not only would it not be in Virginia's interest to demote Warner, it would be impossible to achieve and would disclose the Republican commanders as notoriously out of touch with rudimentary politics.
Senators shy from punishing one another. Judge not lest you be judged, they tell each other. Leave that stuff to the voters, they advise.
During U.S. Sen. Harry F. Byrd's ice-age reign over Virginia Democrats, he lent quiet sub rosa to Republican presidential nominees. Now and then, national liberals tried to oust him as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. He always beat them back as Virginians cheered.
When the new Senate convenes Jan. 4 with a controlling Republican majority, Warner would like to become chairman of the Rules Committee.
That assignment sounds about as exciting as monitor of the Senate coat closet, but give Warner anything he covets so long as he remains No. 2 Republican in seniority on the Armed Services Committee.
From that perch with Armed Services he exercises a persuasive voice in the nation's defense as well as in funding new aircraft carriers and such on which Hampton Roads leans for economic well-being.
Is that putting it squarely enough for Republican ideologues to grasp?
The supreme ones also are pondering whether to let Warner run for re-election in a primary race instead of setting him up for ambush in a convention.
More about that Monday. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
U.S. Sen. John Warner raised the hackles of Virginia's GOP chiefs,
but they appear to be getting over it.
by CNB