Robertson's Comments Complicate Matters for Earley

By R.H. Melton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 20, 2001; Page VA02

Friends say the darndest things.

Just as Mark L. Earley was trying to stay on the high road after the horror of last week's terrorist attacks, his friend and major financial contributor Pat Robertson made national headlines by agreeing with Jerry Falwell that liberals and their ilk were partly responsible for the assault on the United States.

Earley, the Republican candidate for governor, will not repudiate the remarks by televangelist Robertson, but Democratic candidate Mark R. Warner may ask him to do just that before Nov. 6. And so may those moderate Republicans who were appalled by Robertson's conversation with Falwell two days after the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.

Robertson, hosting "The 700 Club" on his Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), was talking last Thursday with Lynchburg-based evangelist Falwell, who complained that abortion rights proponents, civil liberties groups, gay rights advocates and feminists "helped this happen." Robertson responded by saying he "totally" concurred.

"God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve," Falwell said.

"Jerry, that's my feeling," Robertson replied. "I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven't even begun to see what they can do to the major population."

Falwell apologized Monday for excoriating fellow Americans at this time of national heartache. Robertson issued his own statement, calling Falwell's remarks "totally inappropriate" and saying that his guest's statements were "frankly, not fully understood" by him or the show's other hosts.

The damage may already be done, for it's hard for Falwell's apology to erase completely the tone and substance of the original conversation.

And Robertson's beliefs matter in the governor's race because he has been and continues to be a staunch supporter of Earley's, going back to the candidate's days as a state senator from Chesapeake, where CBN is located. Robertson has given Earley's gubernatorial campaign $35,000, making him one of the largest individual contributors.

More important for this election, the two share an abiding Christian conservatism that has informed both their public lives.

In Robertson's case, those core beliefs have fueled his passionate, unflagging hostility to secular, liberal interests and led, briefly, to a GOP presidential bid in 1988.

In Earley's case, those same beliefs propelled a quiet Tidewater lawyer to the front ranks of conservative Republicans long before those views became fashionable in Virginia. Earley's fierce opposition to abortion and his tough views on criminal justice made him a legislative star in then-governor George Allen's political galaxy.

So how does Earley respond to the views of his old friend and neighbor? His spokesman said the candidate will not discuss the Robertson-Falwell conversation.

"We're not going to even go there," said Earley press secretary David B. Botkins. "Mark's focus and Mark's message to people is about healing and bringing people together at this incredibly emotional and difficult time. . . . I don't have any comments at all on what those two gentlemen said."

Robertson's concurrence with Falwell is all the more striking given Earley's carefully wrought message in recent days. For instance, according to a transcript provided by Botkins, Earley spoke movingly about the nation's anguish on the day after the attacks, telling a business group in suburban Richmond that "if ever there was any question in the minds of this generation about whether or not evil exists in the world today, we had a sobering reminder yesterday."

Earley had spent the day before the attacks a few blocks from the World Trade Center, raising money with Gov. James S. Gilmore III (R) along Wall Street. So it was with some feeling that Earley spoke to the Chesterfield Chamber of Commerce about what he called this "time of faith."

"All of a sudden, when we're faced with reality and the price of freedom, we're all reminded of how important He is," Earley said. "I'm sure we're going to see it again over the days and weeks and months ahead -- people reaching out and returning to Him on whom this nation depends for every moment of freedom we ever hope to have."

Warner, too, has risen to the occasion. Like Earley, he shut down his campaign for a respectful few days and has since spoken simply and stirringly about the national crisis.

On Saturday, Warner told supporters picnicking in the horse country west of Richmond: "I think it's incredibly important that we stand behind our president and the commander in chief at this point and that we recognize that what happened this week was in its most visceral form pure evil. And that our country, for all its flaws and shortcomings, is still the greatest beacon of hope of any country in the world."

In the current climate, with emotions so raw and voters largely uninterested in petty politics, Warner may be reluctant to criticize Earley over Robertson's remarks. He will resist the temptation that sucks in so many Democrats -- simply demonizing Earley as a creature of the religious right, a Robertson tool.

Earley is much more complicated than that. But it is still fair to ask him to confront the words of one of his principal financial backers and political supporters before the Nov. 6 election.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57149-2001Sep19.html