Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 11, 1994 TAG: 9404110052
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Dwayne Yancey
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Ronald Reagan is a senile old coot who doesn't have the foggiest clue what's going on in the world.
Is that the line being peddled by liberals bent on running down the reputation of the icon of the conservative movement? No, that's how Virginia conservatives explain away the letter the ex-president wrote calling Republican Senate hopeful Oliver North a liar.
OK, let's get this straight, too:
Douglas Wilder needs to jump into Virginia's Senate race as an independent to "save" the state and uphold the honor of the "moral middle" in a clash between North and Democratic incumbent Sen. Charles Robb.
Is that what the state's African-American press is saying about the nation's first black elected governor (now ex-governor)? No, that's from the conservative editorial pages of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
If you're trying to make sense of the latest twists and turns in Virginia's soap opera of a U.S. Senate race, here's a hint: Don't bother.
Maybe Democratic state Sen. Madison Marye of Shawsville had it all wrong when he tried this winter to tinker with the lyrics to the state song. Instead of "Carry Me Back to Old Virginia," maybe the most appropriate anthem for the Old Dominion this political season would be "The World Turned Upside Down."
Consider:
U.S. Sen. John Warner, a Republican, is the state's most popular politician. Polls routinely put his approval ratings in the stratospheric range.
So who is it Virginia Republicans would most like to kick out of office? Why, Warner, of course.
The moderate Warner infuriated the party's conservatives - especially its religious conservatives - by refusing to endorse Mike Farris, the party's nominee for lieutenant governor last fall. Now Warner's leading the charge against North, a flagrant violation of the party's revered "11th Commandment," which holds that "thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican."
So in this holy war between Warner and the party's right wing, who is it that piously cites the Bible in press releases?
Why, it's Warner, who announced recently that he found references to the "11th Commandment" to be "denigrating to the infallible, Biblical commandments."
Then there's Chesapeake developer Dan Hoffler, a major financier of Democrat Wilder's 1989 campaign for governor - and the fellow who was on the other end of the cellular phone line with Wilder in the case of that infamous audiotape that wound up in Robb's possession.
Where's Hoffler now politically? Backing North - apparently because he's mad that while Robb apologized to Wilder for the taping incident, Robb never apologized to him.
The result: Poor Jim Miller finds an endorsement by the state's leading Republican vote-getter is the kiss of death among many conservative GOP activists. Yet North is busy talking up his endorsement by a former Wilder crony - citing it as evidence that he's building a broad-based coalition.
And then there's the whole flap over Miller's clumsy attempt to raise questions about North's psychiatric hospitalization in the 1970s.
Who comes to North's defense? None other than a Democrat, Second Lady Tipper Gore, who slams Miller for making mental health an issue.
What's happening here?
Simple, says Virginia Tech political analyst Bob Denton, who has written 10 books on politics and the media. "It's the politics of personality. Is there an issue driving the campaign? No, it's personality."
If this were a more "normal" election pitting more "normal" political figures - say Republican state Sen. Kenneth Stolle of Virginia Beach against Democratic state Sen. Virgil Goode of Rocky Mount - perhaps issues would matter.
But with Robb, North and Wilder? Forget issues, Denton says. This election will be less about voting records and more about visceral reactions. "Politics is so linked to emotion," he says, "that rationality loses out."
by CNB