Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.wpost From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Three Strikes Against Lynn MartinBy Rowland Evans and Robert Novak Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 05:02:45 EST Message-ID: <69.1992Nov16.050246@AmeriCast.com> Three Strikes Against Lynn MartinBy Rowland Evans and Robert No- vak Secretary of Labor Lynn Martin, seeking to continue her up- beat political career by becoming Republican national chairman, has quickly recorded three strikes - and that means she's out. Strike No. 1: She is closely associated with George Bush. Strike No. 2: She is a Washington insider who was an influential member of Congress before joining the Bush Cabinet. Strike No. 3: She is vigorously pro-choice on the abortion question. Why those re'sume' items for Martin are liabilities instead of assets tells much about the mood of the Republican Party in the wake of defeat. It is sour, anxious, angry and less confident of the future than was the case following previous GOP defeats in 1976 and 1964. The race for Republican national chairman just now unfolding encapsulates the problems of the opposition party. Nobody can predict the outcome of the party's first open contest to be decided by the Republican National Committee in 16 years. But if a front-runner had to be picked today, that designation would go to somebody far less familiar to the public than Martin: Haley Barbour, a Mississippi lawyer who lobbies in Washington. He is the only National Committee member running for the job, has always stayed at arm's length from the Bush operation and would not launch a party civil war over abortion. Barbour's job description suits the outlook of the RNC's elec- tors, whose outrage over the Bush election effort cannot be con- tained. In state after state, Republican worthies rail over the worst campaign they say they ever have seen. Martin's prominence as a Bush surrogate is her first strike. Veteran political con- sultant Charlie Black's even greater exposure speaking for Bush on national television in itself fatally wounds his hopes to be national chairman. Martin took her second strike when word spread that her campaign was launched by Republican National Chairman Rich Bond, who could not keep the office if he wanted to. Bond is the fifth straight national chairman dictated by the White House over the last 12 years, and the RNC members have had enough of it. "The inside-the-Beltway, non-elected Republicans have taken on the characteristics of the Democrats," says a Nov. 6 letter signed by six RNC electors headed by Committeeman Ernie Angelo of Texas. "They believe all wisdom comes from inside the Beltway. All those in the real world outside the Beltway ... are treated like mushrooms." The Angelo letter calls for the election of a grass-roots Repub- lican as national chairman. This helps the candidates most ac- tively seeking votes: Barbour and Bo Calloway, who has served on the RNC from both Georgia and Colorado. Ex-Michigan State Chair- man Spence Abraham, who got high marks for managing the 1992 House campaign, also has started soliciting votes. But aggressive support for him by his former boss, Vice President Dan Quayle, may have been a serious blunder. The RNC does not want dictation from on high. A big name is not enough. Retiring Rep. Vin Weber is so respected a party leader and so effective a political organizer that he might have won, but the fact that he hardly knows anybody on the National Committee would have been a big handicap. Another high- ly regarded conservative, outgoing Missouri Gov. John Ashcroft, faces the same problem if he runs. Martin's third strike is less obvious. Actually, there is con- sensus in the party that the hard line against abortion will have to be modified in the 1996 platform. But there is widespread disagreement with Martin's privately stated beliefs that the GOP badly needs a pro-choice woman as its chairman. According to exit polls, only 12 percent of all voters con- sidered abortion a key issue, and they broke 3 to 2 in Bush's favor. More important, Martin as chairman would be a declaration of war against the Rev. Pat Robertson and his Christian Coali- tion. Practical Republican politicians want to learn to live with Robertson, not without him. In the wake of their 1964 debacle, Republicans knew exactly what they wanted for chairman: Ray Bliss, the nuts-and-bolts, back-room pol from Ohio. They are not sure they can do with a non-articulator this time, but they are positive what they do not want.< 1992, Creators Syndicate Inc.=03:06 11-16C9999----- Copyright 1992, The Washington Post. This story is from the Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar- chived or redistributed. For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Cor- poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)