THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 10, 1996 TAG: 9607100353
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: 56 lines
Strange how the looks of political mavericks are as exceptional as their views.
Paul Tsongas, with twisted mouth and huge, hurt eyes, E.T.'s kin; Ross Perot, a peanut with flap ears; and, as of yesterday, former Colorado governor Richard Lamm, who announced his candidacy for the presidency with the Reform Party. At the moment that party is under Perot's wing.
Lamm looks as if he came from a drawing board for a Walt Disney animal flick. As he talks, he nods his head as if to placate the listener. With buck teeth and a small, round mouth, he is as engaging as a chipmunk munching words instead of hickory nuts.
Then a startling transformation occurs as he snaps his mouth shut like a miser's purse and his lips immediately turn down in grim resolve, a Boston bulldog.
Make no mistake, Lamm is tough. He is the man who declared, during one of his terms as governor, that old people ought to die and make room for those coming on.
Lamm makes cross-grained Perot seem as benevolent as the Easter Bunny. He has made a point of saying he is a close friend of Bill Clinton's, thereby trying to enhance his own credentials. Such an assertion would nauseate most politicians.
Clinton is besieged by Republicans trying to bring him down. But few are as capable of delivering a fatal blow as is Lamm, his friend. Circling Clinton, a hyena after a hard-beset lion.
Clinton has an infinite capacity for taking punches, smiling. ``I like him very much,'' Clinton told reporters. ``He'll have to do whatever he wants to do, and I hope we have a good, positive debate.''
In what is forecast to be a close race at the finish, the votes for two third-party candidates, former Democrat Lamm and Green Party candidate Ralph Nader, could determine whether Clinton or Republication Bob Dole wins in November.
Lamm's wife, a rabid, lifelong Democrat, told the Rocky Mountain News that she didn't know if she could support anyone's campaign, even her husband's, ``if it threw it to Bob Dole.''
``If that happens, I hope his wife will do what she has said she was going to do,'' Clinton joked, ``that she'd be for me if she thought it would undermine our position in the election.''
Calling for cuts in social services, even Medicare and Social Security, Lamm declared ``The New Deal, in my mind, has become a raw deal for my children.''
But how will Perot, who founded United We Stand America, from which the Reform Party grew, receive Lamm's challenge to his leadership?
``He's a good poker player,'' Lamm said. ``Hell, he's free to run.''
Ain't it great to be an American, with so many parties bidding for us. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Richard Lamm by CNB