THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 5, 1996 TAG: 9606050008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 49 lines
Oliver North suggests that both the GOP's Senate primary next Tuesday and the fall presidential race in Virginia are referenda on him.
Sorry, Ollie. It's not about you.
The names on the ballot Tuesday are John Warner and Jim Miller. The monikers this fall, almost certainly, will be Bill Clinton and Bob Dole.
Yet North electrified his disciples at the Republicans' weekend convention in Roanoke by suggesting that every Virginian who loves him and wants a replica in the Senate should turn out Tuesday to vote for Miller.
In a claim later parroted by Miller, North went on to suggest that Dole's Virginia campaign could perish if the Senate majority leader keeps his promise to campaign for Warner this weekend.
Never mind that Virginia hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential nominee in any election, except 1964, since the Dark Ages. Never mind that such pressing issues as international entanglements, jobs and welfare, Medicare and Social Security will be before the nation this fall.
Virginians are so incensed with Warner for opposing North's Senate bid in 1994, say North and Miller, that they'll put aside voting on the future of the republic to vote for payback.
We doubt it.
If Bob Dole goes down in Virginia this fall, it will say more about Bill and Bob than Ollie and John. It will also mean that Dole is on the losing end of a Clinton landslide.
If they are wise, Virginia Republicans won't gauge the 1996 Senate race by the 1994 one.
For starters, no matter where you stood in 1994, Jim Miller is not Ollie North. Or if he is, he has only lately become so. You've got to have a short memory to have forgotten that at this time two years ago Miller was questioning North's moral and even mental qualifications for the Senate. It is one thing for a former foe to become an ally for political purposes. It is another to become a clone - with amnesia.
Someone is committing some serious sacrifice of principle if that occurs.
Second, Virginians have more-important things to worry about than elections past. They should assess Jim Miller and John Warner in terms of who can most accurately reflect the philosophy of the state and who can best promote the state in the national competition for jobs and federal dollars.
Republicans can vote as they wish on Tuesday. But if they're bent on holding North Referendum II, they're taking a mighty risk that the outcome in November will be no different from North Referendum I. The result could be two Democrats representing Virginia in the U.S. Senate. by CNB