Remarks at the Kennedy-King dinner in Alexandria, Virginia

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Oct 31, 1994

October 21, 1994

The President. Thank you very much, Governor Wilder, especially for that introduction. You know, you mentioned the PLO-Israel signing. It put me in mind of Arafat and Rabin when you and Chuck were shaking hands then. Peace is breaking out all over. [Laughter]

Let me thank Margo Homer and Mame Reiley and Mark Warner for their leadership and for having us here, thank my good friend Jim Moran for that magnificent speech from the heart. Leslie Byrne had to go and win her debate, but I ask you to help her come back. She is a fine woman and wonderful Congresswoman. And Don Beyer, thanks for reminding everybody how we're doing in auto sales and--[laughter]--how well we are doing in our heart. You were great tonight, and I thank you for that. He can really give a talk.

You know, I want to say a few words about two friends of mine, people I serve with, Governor Wilder and then-Governor Robb. And I want to try to get you to think about this election beyond the cheerers here. First, let me say that I thank Doug Wilder for what he said about our administration and our efforts. I thank him for being a longtime friend and colleague and a worthy adversary when we were campaigning in the snows of New Hampshire. I thank him for being an example to a lot of young people in this country, that you really can get there if you have real big dreams and you work hard and you do what you ought to do. Maybe that's the most important thing of all. And I thank him for being here tonight, because what he said here tonight is a genuine expression of love and concern for the future of the people he had served for so many years in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Let me say to Chuck and Linda Robb, I am really sorry they've had to take so many licks for being friends of mine. [Laughter] That goes with the territory, I guess, but I'd never have believed it if you'd told me a year or 2 ago that it would have happened. I can tell you that I have known them a long time. We served together. We've been overseas together. We've been up and down together before. And I have watched Chuck Robb go through this campaign. I have watched him attacked, vilified. I've seen his record distorted and outright falsified. I've seen him labor on in good cheer in the face of the richest campaign in the history of the United States to buy the hearts and minds of the people in any State. He had a magnificent record as a marine officer in Vietnam. He was a terrific Lieutenant Governor and a wonderful Governor of this State. Under publican Presidents, he was telling people of both parties we had to do something about this awful Government deficit that was robbing our children of their future. But this is his finest hour.

Anybody can run and do well in the good times. Anybody can keep on going when you know you are solidly anchored in the spirit of the people. But when a tidal wave comes along, venom and anger and misrepresentation fueled by unlimited money, to stand strong, to not cut and run, to be brave enough to defend what you know is right, to risk it all for the people you really love, those of you who are voting for him and the people who ought to be voting for him who aren't yet, that is his finest hour.

You know, I've been giving a little bit of thought about this election that's going to come up and all the stuffs being said and how I have become the poster bey for Mr. Gingrich and his crowd. [Laughter] Now they don't even sort of sneak around about it, you know. The other day after they killed the lobbying bill and one of their number walked off the floor of the Senate and was cheered by the throngs of lobbyists for killing the lobbying bill on a Saturday--on Monday they met with the lobbyists and said, "Okay, we share your values and you better give us money, and don't give the Democrats money, or else." And then the next day, the House leader, Mr. Gingrich, said that their goal, the Republican goal, was to convince the American people that I was the enemy of normal Americans. I always thought my problem was I was too normal, you know. [Laughter]

I know Virginia is modernizing and growing and diversifying and all of that stuff. And it's magnificent. When I was a Governor and I served with Doug and Chuck, I used to resent how rich Virginia was getting. [Laughter] But I applaud your successes, and I have now contributed to them with some of the defense decisions that have been made in this administration.

But to get right down to it, this is a Southern race, this whole deal. You think about it. Most of us remember--going back to what Jimmy said where we were on April 4, 1968, and June 6, 1968, when Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were killed. It was like somebody tearing a big piece out of our heart because they made us better than we would otherwise have been, not because they were, as they are now painted by our adversaries, the apostles of some liberal, insensitive big Government. Quite the contrary. Read what they said. Both of them wanted Government's power to be used to help ordinary people without regard to their race. But both of them preached the gospel of personal responsibility and cautioned against overreliance on Government.