Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 13, 1993 TAG: 9310130212
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By CAROLYN CLICK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The Democratic incumbent, Lt. Gov. Don Beyer, attempted to paint Republican Mike Farris as an extremist candidate, out of touch with even conservative members of the Virginia GOP.
"In the race for lieutenant governor, the choice has never bee more clear. It is night and day," Beyer said. "Mike Farris is pursuing his own radical agenda, an agenda which will take us backward."
Farris, in turn, tarred Beyer as a political insider with no will to reform the public schools or get tough on crime.
"After four years as lieutenant governor, Don Beyer should have a record he could run on without needing to viciously attack his opponent," Farris said. "The real reason Beyer is attacking me is that he is trying to hide his own record."
Beyer - who has tried to highlight the Republican's ties to his former bosses, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson - warned that Farris would undermine statewide academic standards by allowing localities to determine curriculum and would require taxpayers to subsidize vouchers for parents who want to send their children to private rather than public schools.
Then the lieutenant governor drew blood when he brought up Farris' role in banning a controversial book, "The Learning Tree," from a school library in Washington state and his legal representation of a group in Tennessee that wanted a separate textbook curriculum because the standard lessons did not correspond with their religious beliefs.
"Why did we want to attack that book?" Farris said, in explaining "The Learning Tree" episode. "It is because it called Jesus Christ a long-legged white son-of-a-bitch.
"I don't think the taxpayers ought to pay for books like that. . . . Everybody in Virginia, listen up: Don Beyer wants to use taxpayers' money to call Jesus an S.O.B. I don't think that if we can't teach that Jesus is the son of God, we shouldn't use taxpayers money to call Jesus an S.O.B."
Calling Farris' remarks "absurd election-year rhetoric," Beyer recalled the other lessons "The Learning Tree" offered.
"It may have mocked Jesus Christ on the page before, but it talks about what it means to be a Christian," Beyer said. "It says being able to love when you want to hate, to forgive them that work against you, to tell the truth even when it hurts, to share your bread no matter how hungry you are. What are we so afraid of that we won't let our children read even that?"
Farris defended earlier writings in which he characterized women as occasionally hysterical when faced with an authority figure.
That, said Farris, came from a book he wrote for fathers of home-schooled children.
"I was giving them advice within the framework of the Christian home-schooling world view, and I was telling them how they could best achieve their goals of having a home school," he said. "I was telling dads, `Dads, it's your duty to stand by your wife when there's a truant officer standing by the door coming to take away your children.' "
He said Beyer had no right to attack him for believing that women are often better off concentrating on children and home rather than a professional career.
"One of the quotes he takes out of context is advice I gave to my own daughters. Since when is advice I gave to my own daughters about not chasing the feminist dream a political issue?"
Beyer also made it clear he believed Farris was exaggerating his views as well.
"Mike Farris' hostility to me has shown up in many, many name-callings," said Beyer. "He's called me a religious bigot again tonight, he called me `Big Debt Don,' `Debate Dodger Don.' He wrote a song about my father. I believe my daughter may be in one of his radio ads. . . . There has been a dragging in of my family that I have deeply, deeply resented."
The debate, held at the Blue Ridge Public Television studios in Roanoke, was organized by WVTF-FM public radio.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB