THE IRAN--CONTRA HEARINGS : Lawmakers Laud Witness, Find Fault With Interrogator

By the time congressional investigators resumed their examination of Lt. Col. Oliver L. North on Friday, it had become clear that the top gun of the Iran- contra affair was not going to be put in the stocks and have the key thrown away after all.

Once he had finished confessing little excursions into shredding documents and concocting fibs, his massively publicized appearance under the lights on Capitol Hill had gathered sympathy from coast to coast.

All of a sudden, some members of the investigating committees who had kept a more than respectful distance from the controversial Marine officer were implying that they were ready to pillory their own lawyers instead of North.

‘Out of Line’

As Senate counsel Arthur L. Liman concluded a surprisingly low-key and unhostile interrogation of North, Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.) allowed as how he found the attorney “out of line.”

“He doesn’t speak for everybody,” said McCollum with furrowed brow. “I thought that Mr. Liman was supposed to be getting facts out . . . not expressing views, not expressing shock. . . . “

Outside the hearing room, other Republicans chimed in, among them Rep. Michael DeWine (R-Ohio), who said he found Liman’s questions somewhat “mean-spirited.”

‘Stirring and Patriotic’

And the loquacious Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.) came instantly to the lieutenant colonel’s side. North’s performance, Hyde said, was the most stirring and patriotic thing “since the first time I saw Jimmy Cagney singing ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy.’ ”

“A man comes in who was the hunted and turns out to be the impresario. He’s turned the momentum around.”

Even allowing for considerable exaggeration in Friday’s new perception of events, North emerged as a likable, sympathetic and immensely competent figure and managed to turn the hearing into a forum to give the Reagan Administration’s policy in Nicaragua the most thorough airing it has ever received.

Motivational Slide Show

At one point, it appeared that he would even get to present on live national television a motivational slide show that he had assembled concerning Nicaragua to reveal the Communist threat in Central America. Instead, the show will be seen by the committee in private.

After the committee lawyers had finished their questioning, members of Congress began their turns at North in the afternoon, beginning a phase of his testimony that some committee members predicted would be more policy-oriented and perhaps more contentious than the attorneys’ questions.

But, in nearly two hours of questioning by Reps. Ed Jenkins (D-Ga.) and Dick Cheney (R-Wyo.), there were no warning shots to prevent North from having his most restful weekend since his cover was blown last November.

Indeed, he walked out of the Senate Caucus Room with praise from Cheney behind him. “Col. North,” the congressman said, “has been one of the most impressive and effective witnesses this committee has heard.”

Showing increasing confidence, North, who had already characterized himself as the man designated to “take the spear” if the secret operation was found out, dramatically told members as the week wound to an end: “Hang whatever you want around the neck of Oliver North. But, for the love of God and the love of this nation, don’t hang around the neck of Oliver North the cutoff of funds to the Nicaraguan resistence again.”

Serious Implications

In spite of North’s skillful testimony--a “tour de force,” Dan Rather pronounced it on CBS--it had in it serious implications for President Reagan.

For all North did to insist that the President knew nothing about the diversion of Iranian arms sales proceeds to the contra rebels in Nicaragua, his answers time and time again made the late William J. Casey, former director of the CIA and one of Reagan’s most intimate friends, the main force behind the entire operation.

And for all the joy in an Administration where North was regaining his on-again, off-again hero status, there was still the sobering reality that the hearings stretch far down the road. Around the next bend is the testimony of former National Security Adviser John M. Poindexter, who will be asked point-blank many times and in many ways whether the President knew what was going on.

The last four days, Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.) said, were “a personal victory for Oliver North--nothing more.”

Some conservatives shared the assessment. It is doubtful, Rep. Jim Courter (R-N.J.) said, that the new Oliver North can sway votes on the still-burning issue of aid to the anti-government guerrillas in Nicaragua.

“I have no idea whether it has any effect on Central American policy,” he said of North’s testimony, “but I think it has had some effect on members of the committee who now realize that they wrongly prejudiced Oliver North.”