Oliver North

WASHINGTON -- Well, so much for the 11th Commandment.That, most active Republicans and political junkies of all sorts know, is the old Ronald Reagan credo: "Thou Shall Not Speak Ill of Another Republican."It is one that Reagan used repeatedly in his political career to stay out of Republican primaries, to sustain his image as Mr. Nice Guy and to encourage fellow Republicans to save their fire for the Democrats.He is said by Reagan biographer Lou Cannon to have endorsed a Republican only once in a congressional primary in New York, and on that occasion said nothing against the man's opponent.

IT IS remarkable, but true. Iran-contra figure Oliver North is the odds-on favorite to win the Virginia Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate. Should he win that nomination, it appears that he will face incumbent Democrat Charles Robb, a politician who is so soiled by allegations of sexual and legal improprieties that almost anyone can unseat him. Without some drastic, intervening event, the possibility of Colonel North taking a seat next year in...

The Republican Party is in its best shape ever in Virginia, and the spirited, high-visibility race for the U.S. Senate nomination now under way may make it even stronger. Last month, George Allen took the oath of office as governor, the first Republican to do so in 12 years. The state's new attorney general is also the first Republican in the job in 12 years. And the 1993 elections produced a record number of Republican state legislators. Democrats have only a five-seat edge in the state House and a four-seat edge in the state Senate.

NORFOLK, Va. -- Unable to put the Iran-contra scandal behind him in his race for the U.S. Senate, Oliver North has decided to embrace it, appealing for sympathy as a patriotic anti-communist driven by compassion when he defied and deceived Congress.After having been hammered by many fellow Republicans as a liar unfit for higher office, Mr. North told a group of Virginia GOP activists last weekend that he would do it all over again: Sell arms to Iran, give aid to the Nicaraguan contras, lie to Congress and shred government records in a cover-up.

Temple University basketball coach John Chaney did a remarkable thing the other day. He owned up to a shameful act.At a news conference last Wednesday, he tearfully apologized to pretty much the entire planet for verbally and nearly physically attacking the opposing team's coach after a tough Temple loss a few days earlier.I call this remarkable because I'm hard-pressed to think of another public figure who recently has expressed some honest, old-fashioned, let-me-crawl-under-the-nearest-rock shame and embarrassment.

Los Angeles.--"I want to take back government from the insiders,'' began Oliver North's entry speech into partisan politics.Whatever you think of his record of lying and secrecy, you have to admire the man's bravado. Or, perhaps it is just that he has a great sense of humor.The ultimate insider has decided to run for the U.S. Senate as ''The Outsider''!In true flag-waving style, Colonel North became famous and rich enough to bankroll a campaign by revealing himself as the secret agent at the secret heart of a secret policy, supposedly kept secret even from the nation's elected policy makers.

After three months of formal campaigning, Oliver North has become the favorite to win the Republican Senate nomination in Virginia and then oust Democratic incumbent Sen. Charles Robb. Despite problems involving sexual escapades and wiretapping of his adversary Gov. Douglas Wilder, Senator Robb is considered a cinch to be renominated, now that Governor Wilder has decided not to challenge him.Mr. North is riding his fame as the Iran-contra central figure into political viability. He is doing this despite considerable evidence that he is far outside the mainstream of Virginia Republicanism.

Atlanta - WHEN A politician tries to cover up his role in a scandal, he may do himself more harm than he would have by telling the truth at the start. That was so for Richard Nixon in Watergate. It is turning out the same way for George Bush in the Iran-contra affair.From the moment the public learned of the affair, in November 1986, Mr. Bush has maintained that he was not involved -- that as vice president he was "out of the loop." In particular, he has said many times that he was not aware arms were being sent to Iran in return for release of American hostages in Lebanon.

WASHINGTON -- The prosecution's principal witness in the trial of a former CIA official wound up his testimony yesterday by insisting that the Reagan administration's covert effort to assist the Nicaraguan rebels in the mid-1980s was an "open secret" long before the operation was publicly disclosed.Alan D. Fiers Jr., who formerly headed the agency's covert operations in Latin America, made his assertions in a mostly tedious round of questioning in the Iran-contra trial of Clair E. George, the agency's former deputy director in charge of covert operations.

LONDON -- After nearly five years in captivity, Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite has returned home to a hero's welcome -- and to hard questions about his role with Oliver L. North in the arms-for-hostages deal.Before his capture Jan. 20, 1987, Mr. Waite had received international acclaim for his role in the freeing of three American hostages in Lebanon. His tireless efforts seemed in keeping with the reputation he had built up throughout the 1980s as a man who would go to Iran, Libya or anywhere to help people held captive against their will.