Charges Seen Hurting Robb’s Presidential Plans : Politics: The Virginia senator’s handling of old allegations of philandering and socializing with drug users has raised questions about his competence.

Sen. Charles S. Robb (D-Va.), the handsome former Marine and Virginia governor who wed Lyndon B. Johnson’s daughter and seemed almost type-cast to succeed him in the White House, is facing a political crisis that only deepens the harder he tries to escape.

Petrified by word that a television network was resurrecting old charges of personal misconduct against him, Robb tried to soften the impact last month by calling a press conference and releasing his own version of events in advance.

Instead of preempting the controversy, though, he only managed to spotlight it.

Now, after weeks of parrying by his staff, his accusers and libel lawyers, the senator has been left appearing panicked and on the defensive--with any presidential ambitions apparently in shambles.

Although Robb has acknowledged indiscretions with a former beauty queen, the most serious charges leveled against him--that he was a philanderer and socialized with drug users during his years as Virginia’s governor--were not substantiated.

Nevertheless, the handling of the controversy--including threats made by Robb’s staff that one of his tormentors could face tax troubles--has raised questions about Robb’s political competence.

It also illustrates that the age-old strategy of trying to combat a brewing scandal by preempting it rather than responding to it can carry grave risks.

The case has even revealed a split over the senator within his own party’s ranks in Virginia. Some experts say the electorate is so concerned about the issue of character that Robb’s hopes of being considered for higher national office are dead.

Larry J. Sabato, a professor of political science at the University of Virginia, says Robb initially ignored advice from friends some months ago that he confront rumors about “a wild period” of his personal life while he was governor from 1982 to 1986.

“He could have made a public apology in relatively general terms,” Sabato says. “If you encourage voters to offer you forgiveness, they’re usually willing to do it once.”

But Sabato, who is writing a book about politicians and the press, says Robb’s failure to confront the issue at that time has forced him “to face circumstances not of his own choosing” in recent weeks.

Mark J. Rozell, a political scientist at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Va., agrees with Sabato that the charges and Robb’s handling of them could affect the senator’s ambitions for higher national office.

“The character issue has been important in presidential races, and these stories raise questions about his veracity and judgment,” Rozell says.

Paul Goldman, the state Democratic chairman, declined comment on whether Robb had brought his troubles upon himself. “The man has falsely accused me of spreading the rumors,” said Goldman, who made clear that he and Robb are not close.

Accused in a television interview by Tai Collins, a former Miss Virginia, of having had an affair with her in 1984, Robb responded that the two had shared a bottle of wine in a New York hotel room before Collins gave him a massage.

He said the two had had no sexual relationship.

Robb also branded as “ridiculous” an assertion by building contractor Gary Pope, on the NBC “Expose” show, that Pope saw Robb seated at a coffee table at a 1983 party at which a young woman snorted cocaine in front of the governor.

Pope’s charges were not new. During a federal drug probe in 1986, there were allegations that Robb had attended parties in the resort community of Virginia Beach where cocaine had been used.

Robb has conceded that he may have been present at such parties without knowing that drugs were being used on the premises. But he insists he never used drugs himself and never personally saw anyone else using them, and authorities have found no evidence to contradict him.

Charges of personal misconduct on Robb’s part were aired throughout the state during his successful 1988 campaign for the U.S. Senate, and they have persisted, thanks in part to Billy A. Franklin, a detective once employed by Republicans. Franklin plans a book about Robb.

Threats that Franklin may face tax problems were contained in a taped conversation between Collins and David McCloud, Robb’s chief of staff, that was broadcast by NBC.

The tape, made secretly by Collins last year, has McCloud saying, “I’m going to do everything I possibly can legally to see that he (Franklin) pays an extraordinary high price.

“If he wants to take on the United States senator,” McCloud continues, “he’s going to have problems with the IRS all the way to the Justice Department . . . . “

While McCloud has declined comment on the taped conversation, Robb has rushed to defend his longtime aide, saying McCloud’s remarks “sound like the kind of statement you would make if you were just really fed up with somebody.”

Robb’s defense was contained in the tape of a 2 1/2-hour interview with NBC, which he released in advance of the network show.

He said bitterly that Franklin, Collins and some journalists are among “a very small group of people that are basically either making a living, hope to make a living, or hope to enhance their reputations or diminish mine based on keeping this thing alive.”

Collins, 28, is a model who works in New York. She has been out of the country in recent weeks.

Referring to her allegations, Robb said: “I’ve acknowledged my minor peccadilloes, my minor indiscretions. I’ve said that they are there.”

He has declined further comment since the April 28 broadcast.

Earlier this month, however, in an action that some say had political overtones, Virginia state police announced they had opened their own investigation. The department is controlled by Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, who--although a Democrat--does not see eye-to-eye with Robb.

Later, Police Supt. William F. Corvello said the probe was limited to threats allegedly made against some critics of Robb, including anonymous death threats against Collins.

The former beauty queen said she has received phone calls in which a male voice says: “I’m going to slit your throat.”

Indicative of the virtual isolation in which Robb finds himself, Wilder was asked to comment on the senator’s plight.

“He is in the eye of the storm--I am in the eye of the storm,” the governor told reporters. “Most of us are able to handle it.”