Elder Statesman Stumping for Zschau : County Republicans Salute Sen. Goldwater

Feisty and conservative as ever, Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) visited Orange County Thursday night, talking about freedom and urging a vote for Republican Senate candidate Ed Zschau--even if he couldn’t say the name.

“Of course, we do need the Republican candidate for the Senate,” Goldwater said. “. . . I have a hell of a time with his name. But you know who I mean.”

His audience--400 Republicans crowded into a banquet room at Irvine’s Registry Hotel--nodded their heads. They knew. They also laughed. And someone supplied the name.

As he has for several months, Goldwater was stumping for Republican Senate candidates. But his reception Thursday went beyond the ordinary campaign stop.

For county Republicans had put together a tribute to the 77-year-old Goldwater, who will retire from the Senate in January after 39 years in politics.

Goldwater Girl

Calling him “the patron saint of conservatism,” they toasted him in speeches and showered him with plaques. And Bill Lang of Lang Financial in Newport Beach brought back a creation from Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign--the Goldwater Girl. Clad in a gold poodle skirt, fringed blouse, white boots and cowgirl hat, Lang employee Carrie Drake paraded onto the stage and gave the white-haired senator a kiss.

“You’ll probably remember that in 1964, Orange County gave Barry Goldwater 76% of the popular vote,” Lang said. “And the senator commented then that ‘There were only two states in the country that went for me: Arizona and Orange County!’ ”

Supervisor Bruce Nestande told the crowd that his oldest son was named after Barry Goldwater. “Each of us can claim our political roots go back to Barry Goldwater,” Nestande said. “He will go down in history as a person whose premiere concern is the defense of America.”

Throughout the speeches, Goldwater sat quietly on a small stage, watching intently from a blue armchair and sometimes toying with his cane.

Defended Talks

But when he got his chance to talk, Goldwater defended President Reagan’s recent talks with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev. Despite what “those left-leaning newspaper people” have said, Reagan’s recent meeting with Gorbachev in Reykjavik, Iceland, “did some good,” Goldwater said, “because he had the guts to look the Russians in the eye and in effect tell them to go to hell.”

He also mentioned the air raid on Moammar Kadafi’s headquarters in Libya last year. “We’ve never used the power we have--economic, moral and military power,” Goldwater said.

“Not that we should go out and beat the daylights out of people,” but after the Libyan raid, “everyplace in the world, people have said, ‘My God, you finally woke up. You’re acting like a leader.’ ”

Noting that he and his wife used to spend summers in Newport Beach, Goldwater called Orange County his second home. “Conservatism has a great record in Orange County,” Goldwater said. “I’d like to see a few more Orange counties spread around these United States. We’d all be better off.”