08/18/99 - THE WASHINGTON TIMES - Ralph Z. Hallow   GOP GIVES BUCHANAN DEFERENTIAL TREATMENT Republican Party leaders are treating Pat Buchanan with kid gloves for fear he will bolt to the Reform Party ticket and take votes away from the GOP's presidential standard-bearer next year.    "Anyone who heard Pat Buchanan's speech in Ames [at the Iowa GOP straw poll] on Saturday, and, more importantly, anyone who saw the enthusiastic response he received from that Republican audience knows that the Republican Party is Pat's home," Republican National Committee Chairman Jim Nicholson told The Washington Times yesterday. Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the front-runner for the GOP nomination, took the threat of a Buchanan third-party challenge so seriously that, in Ames on Saturday, he personally asked Mr. Buchanan not to leave the GOP. Mr. Buchanan later called Mr. Bush's request "gracious" and "generous." One person not employing a make-nice approach to Mr. Buchanan is former Republican National Committee Chairman Rich Bond. On CNBC's "Hardball" this week, Mr. Bond called Mr. Buchanan "the Harold Stassen of the Republican Party," referring to the former GOP governor of Minnesota and perennial presidential candidate.    Mr. Bond resurrected indirectly the charges of racism and xenophobia that several top Republicans leveled at Mr. Buchanan when he challenged President Bush's renomination in 1992 and when he defeated Bob Dole in the New Hampshire primary in 1996. "Pat was kind of the 'angry white man' over the past couple of elections," said Mr. Bond. "He's now kind of the whiny white man in this election, and I just think that nobody can tell [him] what to do. He does listen to a different drummer." A senior GOP aide, on hearing the Bond comments, said: "Ouch, that hurts us. You generally say those things after someone has left the party."    "What Bond did was not a good idea," said Connecticut GOP Chairman Chris DePino, who was the first state Republican leader to have publicly endorsed George W. Bush's candidacy this year. "Pat Buchanan is a very intelligent man who articulates some issues that are good for the Republican Party."    Mr. DePino, who has been a member of the United Transportation Workers Union since 1973, said, "There are a lot of union issues that Republicans would find a lot of common ground on, particularly with the private-sector unions, and Pat has articulated some strong ideas on that score and has been an asset to the GOP in many ways." Indeed, most party officials across the country were aghast at Mr. Bond's comments because they feel Mr. Buchanan -- who has been talking with Ross Perot's faction of the Reform Party -- could take 5 percentage points or more from the GOP candidate's total vote in November 2000. That might be enough to help elect a Democrat to the White House in a close election.    Perry Atkinson, chairman of the Oregon GOP, agreed that the party ought to do nothing to antagonize Mr. Buchanan. But Mr. Atkinson also said a Buchanan third-party run might not be all bad for the GOP, because it would give Mr. Buchanan a platform for his message and "force Bush to sharpen his own message and delivery."    "Otherwise, let's face it, if G.W. [Bush] were to go before [Vice President Al] Gore in a debate, it would be real mush," said Mr. Atkinson. RNC spokesman Michael Collins joined in lavishing praise on Mr. Buchanan, who has been conducting essentially the same populist, nationalist, "America-first" campaign that he ran twice before.    "Pat Buchanan clearly speaks to the soul of much of the Republican Party, and that's what he did on Saturday," Mr. Collins said yesterday. "We need Pat Buchanan as a contributing member of this party, just like we did when he was writing speeches for President Nixon in the 1960s and for President Reagan in the 1980s. Also, on a personal level, he's a class act and a gentleman." The speculation among Republicans and Reform Party officials who are part of the talks between Mr. Buchanan and the third party is that he would leave the GOP by late September or October.    Jamie Wilson, executive director of the Florida GOP, said, "We're having our state party convention October 8th and 9th in Orlando, and have invited all the Republican presidential-nomination candidates to attend, including Pat."    Mr. Atkinson, the Oregon chairman, said that although he doesn't think Mr. Buchanan would ever desert the GOP, he can see how it would benefit him.    "His going third party affords him dollars [the Reform candidates will qualify for $13.6 million in federal campaign money next year] and exposure," Mr. Atkinson said. "It gets him a place at the table to be heard. Whether he carries the conservative vote with him, I don't know." Earlier, GOP strategist Frank Luntz, who worked in Mr. Buchanan's 1992 presidential-nomination campaign and then in Ross Perot's presidential campaign, told The Washington Times that if Mr. Buchanan were the nominee of the Reform Party, it would be cause for considerable concern for Republicans.    Doug Frieline, who heads Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura's volunteer committee, has acknowledged that there is a "possibility" that Reform Party founder Ross Perot might align with Mr. Buchanan to wrest back control of the party from Mr. Ventura, its highest elected official. Mr. Buchanan of late has begun supporting campaign-finance reform -- a favorite topic of all wings of the Reform Party, but not of most Republicans in Congress.    Nebraska GOP Chairman Charles W. Sigerson Jr. said that is another ominous sign that Mr. Buchanan, who placed second in the Iowa GOP straw poll in 1995, but finished fifth this time, could mount a third-party challenge to the GOP nominee. He said that would be a probability, especially if the nominee is someone who supported the Kosovo war as part of the "new world order" -- a concept despised by Mr. Buchanan and several other conservative GOP hopefuls -- and who does not pledge to appoint only pro-life justices to the Supreme Court.    "I never heard him talk up campaign-finance reform before," Mr. Sigerson said earlier. [WEBNOTE] For the record: PJB's stand on Congressional, Campaign and Lobbying Reform has been a major part of his platform since 1995. 08/17/99 - FRONTRUNNER   BUCHANAN MULLS INDEPENDENT BID When asked on NBC's Meet the Press (8/15) if he was "ruling out running as the Reform Party candidate for president," Pat Buchanan responded, "I'm not ruling anything in or out, but I can tell you what I'm doing right now, is moving forward toward the Republican nomination." Buchanan added, "I know Governor Ventura is very, very liberal on social issues. His party's agnostic on social issues, but I believe these ideas because I'm a Christian and a Roman Catholic. The Reform Party, frankly, does not discriminate against Christians and Catholics. That's not to say that I'm running for any Reform Party nomination. I am a Republican. I've been a Republican all my life. We're marching down this road toward that nomination." Pat Buchanan said on Fox News Sunday (8/15), "Look, my view is this: I'm going down this road toward the Republican nomination. That's where we're headed right now. We're building organization in every state. In terms of Iowans, we did better this time than we did in 1996, although I will say the field is much tougher in terms of organization out here, with Mr. Forbes' money and Mr. Bush's enormous popularity, and frankly, Liddy Dole's popularity. So we're moving down this road toward the Republican nomination. But right now, all I'm going to do is take a vacation, go out and sell a new book I've got, which enunciates some of these foreign policy differences that I have...not only with Clinton and Gore, but with Bush and Forbes and Dole." Buchanan added, "I have not had any discussions with Reform Party people and all those. No doubt many folks and friends of mine like Pat Choate wish I would run in the Reform Party. Howie Phillips wished I would run in the Taxpayer Party, but I chose to run in the Republican Party. That decision stands. And that's the road down which we're going." On CBS' "Face the Nation" (8/15) Pat Buchanan was asked if, given his straw poll finish, it would be better for him to seek a "third-party way." Buchanan said, "No, I don't think so. Look, it takes awhile to sort out the leader of the populous conservatives and the conservatives in the Republican Party to challenge George Bush. We went a little ways toward that process, but clearly it has not been done yet, the winnowing out." Buchanan added, "But I do believe I'm the one candidate who disagrees most profoundly and most extensively with Governor Bush. I believe he's wrong on his China policy, I think it's appeasement. I think he's wrong on his Kosovo policy. I think he's wrong on his immigration policy. I think his support of NAFTA is wrong for American workers and I think he's shown himself to be quite cavalier about the issue of right-to-life in that famous Talk magazine interview. I think we are going to emerge as the conservative challenger to Bush. It hasn't happened yet." Asked if he has ruled out leaving the Republican Party, Buchanan said, " No, what I've said, Bob, is basically this -- I'm going down the road to the Republican nomination. I've been importuned by friends and others who say the way to go, Pat, the Republican Party is headed off in a new direction. If you're a economic nationalist and you're an America-first foreign policy, you got to move in a different direction. I'm going right now, Bob, down this road. I have not detoured from it. If the Republican Party moves off in a new direction, it moves off. Buchanan was also asked if Bush asked him to stay in the GOP. Buchanan said, "Yes, he talked to me before we went out on stage and said, 'I hope you won't leave the Republican Party.' And I said, "I appreciate the thought, Governor.'" Bill Kristol said on ABC's This Week (81/5), "I think Pat Buchanan is laying the groundwork for a third-party bid. He's checking out of the Republican hotel, and if you've watched him closely over the past couple of days, he is laying the groundwork. He wants to be there on the stage in September and October with his own party, taking on the establishment of both parties." When asked on CNN's Late Edition (8/15), "How much trouble is this for the Republican establishment, for Governor Bush, talk of Pat Buchanan leaving the party," USA Today's Susan Page responded, " Could be significant trouble because Pat Buchanan, more than any of the other real possibilities as candidates for the Reform Party, could get a lot of attention, do very well in debates. We saw how entertaining he was. He's always been journalists' favorite candidate to cover because he's a lively guy, could really come at Bush at his right and force him to protect his right flank." Steve Roberts added, " I think he's thinking about his own political profile and his own ideas, and I think he is perfectly capable of bolting and hurting the Republican Party along with it." In his Chicago Sun- Times column (8/15), Robert Novak said that if Pat Buchanan "defects from the Republicans and wins the Reform Party presidential nomination, New York Conservative Party leaders might be unable to stem their party's rank-and- file from nominating him instead of the Republican standard bearer." Buchanan could "head three ballot lines in New York: Conservative, Right-to-Life and Independence (the state's Reform Party). That would diminish high hopes by New York GOP leaders for Texas Gov. George W. Bush to be the first Republican to carry the state for president since Ronald Reagan in 1984." The Boston Herald (8/15, Miga) reported Pat Buchanan "drew the loudest applause of the event when he declared his first act as president at his inaugural would be to tell outgoing President Bill Clinton: 'You have the right to remain silent. '" The Washington Post (8/15, A1, Balz, Broder) reported Buchanan "delivered a typical stemwinder that had the crowd cheering repeatedly, but closed with what he said were words aimed directly at his own supporters. Quoting Abraham Lincoln, Buchanan said, 'I see the storm coming ... If there's a place and a part for me, I believe I'm ready." The Post added the comment "came amid increasing speculation, which Buchanan has refused to stop, that he may leave the Republican Party to seek the Reform Party's nomination." The Des Moines Register (8/15, Roos) reported Buchanan "hit hard on a message of US sovereignty, saying the US shouldn't be 'shipping all our money overseas in foreign aid, when our farmers right here in Iowa are hurting.'" 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