Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 29, 1994 TAG: 9410310062
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ALEC KLEIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
Oliver North on Friday shrugged off a scathing attack from former first lady Nancy Reagan.
"My mother told me a long time ago never to get into a fight with a lady,'' North, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, said of Reagan in a Washington, D.C., news conference.
In her first interview in about three years, Nancy Reagan joined a long list of high-profile Republicans who have expressed outrage and contempt for North.
"I know Ollie North has a great deal of trouble separating fact from fantasy," the former first lady said Thursday evening in New York City before a crowd of about 650. "And he lied to my husband and lied about my husband, kept things from him that he should not have kept from him."
Former President Ronald Reagan, in a bombshell letter in March, said he was "pretty steamed" at North for insisting that Reagan authorized the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages diversion. Reagan, silent since, did not return phone calls Friday.
Vice President Al Gore, a Democrat, was not as reticent Friday.
North "is banking on the fact that he can raise enough money from the extreme right wing - the extra-chromosome right wing - to come in and buy enough advertising to just overwhelm the truth with blatant falsehoods," Gore said.
The vice president later apologized for his reference to Down's syndrome, a genetic condition characterized by an extra chromosome.
"The phrase `extra chromosome' is insensitive and inappropriate and I regret using it," Gore said in a statement issued from Air Force 2, en route from Washington, D.C., to Chicago.
``I did not intend it in the way some heard it, but that is no excuse, and I apologize. The phrase, `pathological liar,' by contrast, is completely appropriate as an accurate description of Oliver North - as Nancy Reagan's statement again made clear today.''
North spokesman Mark Merritt said of Gore's statement: "He has no right to make fun of those suffering from Down's syndrome. As vice president, he ought to have enough respect to keep them out of it."
The former first lady was not such an easy target for the North campaign. North refused to shoot back at Nancy Reagan. "I don't think any of this stuff is going to hurt me," he said. ``... Nothing is going to change the fact that I believe Ronald Reagan is the greatest president of my lifetime."
North's opponents, however, seized the opportunity to underline the fact that North lied to Congress to cover up his role in the plot to sell arms to Iran in exchange for the release of hostages in Lebanon, with the profits diverted to Nicaraguan Contra rebels.
"This man has lied to everyone," former Gov. Douglas Wilder told a group of ministers Friday night. "You can't have a higher pronouncement" than Nancy Reagan's.
"She said it far more eloquently and straightforwardly than I have in many cases," said Democratic incumbent Sen. Charles Robb. "I don't think I could improve on it."
U.S. Sen. John Warner, Virginia's senior Republican, was equally speechless.
"Her strong, clear statement speaks for itself," he said Friday while on the road campaigning with independent candidate Marshall Coleman.
"While the first lady's statement comes as a surprise, it is a logical follow-on to former President Reagan's earlier letter questioning North's integrity," Warner said.
Last March, Reagan said in a letter to former U.S. Sen. Paul Laxalt, R-Nev., "I never instructed [North] or anyone in my administration to mislead Congress on Iran-Contra matters or anything else. And I certainly did not know anything about the Iran-Contra diversion. In fact, as you know, the minute we found out about it, we told the American people and called for investigations."
In his best-selling book ``Under Fire, An American Story,'' North wrote he was "convinced President Reagan knew everything."
North was fired as a White House aide when Justice Department lawyers discovered his role in the scheme. North was convicted in 1989 of three felonies, but those were overturned on appeal because a judge feared that immunized testimony was used against him.
Other prominent Republicans have ripped into North even more than former President Reagan. Among them are George Shultz, former secretary of state; Caspar Weinberger, former secretary of defense; William Colby, former CIA director; and Lawrence Eagleburger, former secretary of state.
Patrick McSweeney, chairman of Virginia's Republican party, was not concerned about Nancy Reagan's salvo.
"My impression of Mrs. Reagan is that she's the keeper of the flame, she's the protector of the legacy, and anything that would besmirch the legacy, I think she's going to take on as a devoted, loyal wife would."
Keywords:
POLITICS
Memo: ***CORRECTION***