THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 28, 1994 TAG: 9408280058
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KEITH MONROE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
An enthusiastic, partisan crowd of almost 400 gathered Saturday morning at the Ocean View Senior Center to hear Republican U.S. Senate candidate Oliver L. North rail against ``professional politicians.''
North answered questions, provided TV cameras with sound bites and handed out autographed copies of his book, ``Under Fire.''
He depicted Democratic incumbent Sen. Charles S. Robb as a tourist in Virginia who ``only visits once every six years because he has to.'' He called Robb a ``Clinton clone'' who is ``out of touch with what the real people of this country want.''
According to North, Robb and the Democrats have cut defense to the bone and treat ``young people like laboratory rats in a social experiment.'' They also are presiding over a new world disorder, North said, and are ``intruding on our constitutional protections.'' They are raising tax burdens, and they hope to turn health care over to bureaucrats, he said.
If elected, North said, he will work to take the burden of the federal government off the backs of citizensand to eliminate unfunded mandates. He would also promote term limits, a balanced budget amendment and the line-item veto. He would try to repeal Clinton tax increases and eliminate ``government programs that no longer fulfill their lofty purpose.''
In answer to audience questions, North endorsed the use of ships of the reserve fleet as prisons and a Constitutional amendment to make flag burning a crime. He denounced the Clinton crime bill, saying it put two new social workers on the street for every new police officer, and he called the present tax structure inequitable. He spoke enthusiastically of a flat-tax proposal authored by U.S. Rep. Richard Armey, R-Texas.
North mocked his three opponents for running on their records. ``If their records were so damned good, wouldn't our taxes be lower, our schools better, and crime under control?'' he said.
The event was hosted by City Councilman Randy Wright, who has sponsored candidate forums for the past eight years in Ocean View. Robb and former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder have agreed to appear at similar events in October. Wright says independent candidate J. Marshall Coleman, a former Republican state attorney general, will also be invited.
KEYWORDS: U.S. SENATE RACE VIRGINIA CANDIDATES
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