TV VIEWERS SEEM IMPRESSED : NORTH RATED HIGH ON PERFORMANCE

WASHINGTON — A new classic in the annals of melodramatic political rhetoric, Lt. Col. Oliver North’s appearance before the Iran- contra committees Wednesday ranks right up there with Richard Nixon’s “Checkers” speech and Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s complaint that the Republicans had stooped to attacking even “my little dog, Fala.”

North stopped short only of taking out family photos of his wife and kiddies or getting down on one knee for a chorus of “Swanee.” It was bravura, it was electric, it was vaguely deplorable but it was fascinating to behold.

In the course of telling about the security fence that had been put around his house, North said that he “made an effort” to have a news story about the terrorist threat on his life “killed,” but complained, “CBS chose to run the film anyway.”

CBS News officials, who said they were initially confused by the reference, then traced it to an April 29, 1986, report on “The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather” by correspondent Doug Tunnell.

Tunnell reported that, in reprisal for the U.S. bombing of Libya, Abu Nidal’s group had targeted for attack not only North and Maj. Gen. John Singlaub, who previously testified to the committees, but also the Heritage Foundation, the right-wing think tank.

CBS spokesmen said other networks reported this story, too, and they didn’t know why North singled out CBS in his testimony.

On the second day of North’s boffo stint on Capitol Hill, at least during the morning session, he was raring to go, and went. Once, after some procedural wrangling between his lawyer and the committee counsel had ended, North looked up eagerly and said, “Whose turn?” It was a Rambotic gesture, like a hero in a war movie standing up with guns akimbo, looking the on-rushing enemy squarely in the kisser and shouting, “Come on, come on, let’s see what you’ve got!”

The emotional high point, and quite a sustained one, came when House counsel John W. Nields Jr. made the tactical error of asking North about that $16,000 security fence that was paid for by one of the contragate conspirators.

“If you’ll indulge me, I’ll give you another of my very straightforward, but lengthy answers,” North said. He wasn’t kidding. At least not about lengthy. North then launched into a rambling but compelling narrative about how bloodthirsty terrorist Abu Nidal, “the world’s foremost assassin” and a “brutal murderer,” put North’s name on a hit list and made him fear for the welfare of his family.

“I’ll be glad to meet Abu Nidal on equal terms anywhere in the world,” North said with a swagger (and this guy can swagger sitting down), but when anybody starts messing with his wife and children, then look out, they’re in deep mud. Denied protection by the U.S. government, North said, and unable to get a security company to make a prompt estimate and begin construction (any homeowner would believe that), he reluctantly accepted what he thought was an $8,000 system that later turned out to cost more.

And, gosh, like a darned old silly, he rigged up two “phony documents,” later, to make it look like he’d paid for the security system himself. The way he explained it, it was the kind of thing that Ozzie Nelson, Chester A. Riley or even Cliff Huxtable might just as easily have done.

On the stand, North continued to stretch more emotive and rhetorical muscles than all the Barrymores put together. Now contrite, now accusative, now coy, now disingenuous, now proud, now sheepish, now feisty, now weary, he was a whole season of Broadway theater rolled into one roller-coaster morning.

But one of the most stunning moments of television during the morning had North briefly off camera. While he continued his testimony, CBS and NBC, and later ABC, cut to live shots of Ronald Reagan leaving the White House to board a helicopter for a trip to Connecticut, where he was to make another speech on his economic dream plans.

The juxtaposition was eerie and incriminating; the little guy, the lieutenant colonel, was sweating it out on the hot seat, practically a sacrificial functionary, while the top man in the chain of command could be seen waving and smiling and larking about, looking coldly and unfeelingly oblivious to North’s plight.

Perhaps for the first time since the hearings began, one felt a jolt that indicated a pivotal historical moment had occurred--Reagan looking suddenly Nixonian as he clambered onto the chopper, North looking seduced and abandoned as he sat there misty-eyed in front of his amassed accusers.

North seems to be heading for a place in mythical history somewhere between Billy Jack and Billy Budd.

Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) praised North as “a superb witness” who is “very articulate,” but he stopped short of saying he found him credible.

Viewers apparently do. According to an ABC News poll reported by Peter Jennings, 58% of those watching say they find North believable, and 70% say they think he is “performing well.”

Performing well? That is an understatement. If the Emmy were a medal, and there were any more room on Ollie North’s chest, he would be a shoo-in.