Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 14, 1991 TAG: 9103140414
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In Virginia, where babies learn to say "cut government spending" before they say "da-da," that will really hurt him, right?
The decision by Democratic pooh-bahs to boot Robb off the budget panel came to light Sunday during an appearance by Virginia's junior senator on "Meet the Press." Robb, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, had conceded that Democrats who opposed President Bush on the use of military force in the Persian Gulf could suffer politically. He was then asked if he had been dropped from the committee because he had broken rank with most Senate Democrats to side with Bush.
Robb said the ouster had nothing to do with the gulf. It stemmed, he said, from his refusal in the committee to support a series of budget proposals because they didn't include a large enough reduction in the federal deficit. The committee's chairman, Sen. Jim Sasser, D-Tenn., "clearly did not want me on the committee." So, Robb said, Sasser engineered a move to reduce the size of the committee to get rid of him.
Sasser, of course, has denied the allegation. But Robb said Sasser had told him privately that's why he was doing it and "if I would have been more willing to cooperate, then he would have been more willing to go to bat for me" with other Democrats.
Robb was the only one to be dumped, and may well be the first Virginia senator ever to be so snubbed by Senate colleagues - members of his own party at that. It's unfortunate that Robb is losing his seat on the influential committee, unfortunate that he hasn't garnered more influence thus far in his Senate career.
But if the committee leaders hope to give Robb a black eye with voters by pointing out how out of step he is with other Democrats, they've miscalculated. It's a snub he'll easily survive.
by CNB