THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 4, 1996 TAG: 9603040039
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Steve Forbes may not win much in the remaining Republican primaries, but the dogged optimist has earned respect. He will be tested anew in New York's primary Thursday - and he may surprise us again.
When Forbes emerged with his millions, he seemed a mite naive, the sort for whom it is said that a fool and his money are some party - and not the Republican Party.
With his perpetual little chortle of a smile beneath knobby nose, ruddy cheeks and cowlick, he was as disarming as Howdy Doody.
Some found him robotic, ill-articulated with little pale blue peep eyes fixed on the distance and a left arm that moved like a runaway pump handle as he preached the flat tax.
In his fervor, Forbes' head tends to shake slightly, recalling the wondrous robot at the 1964 World's Fair whose mechanical aspect was evident only in the barest facial tremor. And he seems programmed as words, tumbling forth, vary little for any question. In three minutes Sunday, he thrice called America ``the shining city on the hill,'' borrowed from Ronald Reagan, who once used it memorably.
The grit behind the cherubic face surfaced when he placed fourth in the New Hampshire primary. The smile didn't slip. That a loss could occasion such elation made one wonder what a victory would produce. That opportunity came when he made a stunning comeback to win in Arizona.
His face wreathed in a smile that threatened to break his jaw, he crowed to a roaring rally: ``Perhaps tonight we may help write the obituary for the conventional political punditry that wrote our obituary!''
``Go Forbes Go!'' they chanted and he mouthed ``thank you'' without yanking it to a halt. Finally, he began naming those responsible for the victory, and it became apparent that he was bent on saluting everybody. The audience cheered each name as if it were a bon mot.
Finally, it seemed the long roll call was done; but, leaving, he turned and cried: ``Two others! Johnny and Brenda who have been driving our bus here in Arizona!''
More cheers, more names! His wife, who had been harried in New Hampshire with their five daughters scurrying about her like spooked partridges before take-off, now seemed girlish herself as she gazed smiling at her vindicated husband.
He showed us a razor edge. In Arizona, in a set-to with Lamar Alexander, he charged the Tennessean with ``cozy deals'' while he was governor. A beaming Pat Buchanan cried, ``Can you get 'em to yield to me, Bob?'' and Dole replied, ``I like what they're doing!''
No one but Forbes dared confront Alexander on the issue. Forbes challenged the New York primary, closed to all but Dole, and a federal court opened the 31 congressional districts to him and half of them to Buchanan. That state has been susceptible to TV ads, which Forbes can hurl at his financially strapped foes. No puppet he! ILLUSTRATION: Forbes: No puppet
by CNB