THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 22, 1996 TAG: 9603220526
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Weary and angry about what one of them described as efforts by the Navy's ``good old boys'' to save the career of Cmdr. Robert E. Stumpf, a bi-partisan quartet of senators on Thursday assailed Stumpf, his lawyer and the service's handling of his nomination for captain.
In a series of speeches delivered on the Senate floor, the four - Republican Dan Coats of Indiana and Democrats Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, Sam Nunn of Georgia and James Exon of Nebraska - had differing views about the seriousness of allegations involving Stumpf's attendance at the 1991 Tailhook Association convention in Las Vegas.
But they closed ranks in defense of the Senate Armed Services Committee and its review of the Virginia Beach-based aviator's controversial nomination. All four sharply disputed charges by Stumpf's lawyer that the committee relied on rumors and anonymous allegations in concluding last fall that Stumpf is unfit for advancement.
As chairman of the subcommittee that reviews nominations, ``I fully stand by those proceedings,'' Coats said. All the committee's evidence was furnished by the Navy, he insisted, and all was available to Stumpf and his lawyer.
The senators also challenged Stumpf to authorize the release of the Navy's full file on its investigation of his attendance at Tailhook. They said his lawyer, Charles W. Gittins of Washington, has publicly voiced support for release of the records but has written the committee to ask for a closed-door hearing on the allegations.
Stumpf and Gittins declined to comment.
The senators' unusual public defense of the committee and attacks on Stumpf and his advocates continued a struggle that may be unprecedented for a military promotion. They also highlighted the continuing unease of some in the Senate with the Navy's leadership and in particular its response to the riotous behavior of naval aviators who attended the Tailhook gathering.
``The character of the Navy is at stake,'' Byrd said Thursday. He said the Senate should consider requesting a full investigation of the Navy's handling of the nomination, and particularly its delay in 1994 in informing the committee of allegations concerning Stumpf's attendance at Tailhook.
The service, in what it has described as an administrative error, failed to disclose Stumpf's ties to the aviators' convention until after the full Senate had voted in 1994 to approve his promotion to captain.
After the service sent the committee word of its mistake, the panel first asked Navy Secretary John H. Dalton to put a hold on the promotion, then told him last fall that it would have recommended Stumpf not be promoted had it known initially of his Tailhook involvement.
Based on that, Dalton removed Stumpf from the promotion list. Despite pleas from Stumpf's supporters and his own statements of support for Stumpf, Dalton has refused to reconsider that decision. A new Navy selection board meanwhile, reportedly has again recommended Stumpf's advancement, raising the possibility that a new nomination might be forwarded to the Senate.
According to a Navy board of inquiry investigation, Stumpf, during the convention, mingled with aviators watching a striptease show in a hotel suite but left shortly before the stripper engaged in a sexual act with one of the airmen.
The board of inquiry concluded that Stumpf had done nothing improper. But Coats, Nunn and Byrd said their reading of the record suggests Stumpf should not be promoted. And Exon, while saying he's not terribly troubled by Stumpf's behavior at Tailhook, questioned the aviator's judgment in waging a public fight for promotion and suing Dalton last week. by CNB