The campaign for president slipped quietly into Kalamazoo Tuesday afternoon, as a Republican maverick told local kindred conservative spirits that George W. Bush is not the only game in the GOP.
"If we want the Republican Party to be the majority party, we've got to get back the Reform Party, we've got to get back the Taxpayer Party, got to get back the Libertarians," political commentator and third-time presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan told about 30 backers and the curious over the din at Wayside West, 3406 Stadium.
"Got to get one big coalition. And you can do that, I believe still, if you adhere to your fundamental, conservative, Republican, small-government, low-tax, traditionalist philosophy. Instead, we've got an establishment in Washington, D.C., that thinks the way to beat Clinton is to be just like him."
Buchanan, a former aide to Richard Nixon and television pundit and author, represents the conservative wing of the GOP - a wing that is feeling abandoned by a party that it accuses of pulling toward the center.
U.S. Sen. Bob Smith, a conservative, recently bolted the Republican Party and announced he will run for president as a third-party candidate.
Buchanan said Tuesday that he recently received a call from Smith, asking him to meet over the weekend.
But Buchanan assured his crowd that he will stay in the GOP - at least for now - while he seeks the GOP presidential nomination.
"Am I forever going to support a party that spits on my ideas and says 'Yeah, you can ride in the back of the bus, Pat, you and your friends?' " he asked the small group that gathered on short notice. It included state Sen. Dale Shugars, R-Portage, former state senators Jack Welborn and Harmon Cropsey and former Kalamazoo County Commissioner Jerry Kohel.
Buchanan, who so far has raised only $2.4 million and already has spent most of it on campaign salaries and fund-raising, knows he'll be far outspent by Bush, who has raised $37 million, and by millionaire Steve Forbes.
Buchanan - who is anti-abortion, opposed to global free trade and unrestricted immigration, worries about the New World Order and has harsh words for "Communist China" -is concerned that Bush represents the "Clinton-lite" wing of the party.
Bush "would have fought the war in Kosovo even more ferociously, he would keep it open for ground troops, he likes the policy of (most-favored-nation trade status) for China, he will not appoint pro-life constitutionalists to the Supreme Court, necessarily. There's no litmus test," Buchanan said.
"He's right down the line with Clinton and Gore. It's getting so bad that poor Bill Clinton said, 'That guy sounds like me. He's stealing all my lines.' "
Tuesday was the second day of Buchanan's two-day swing through Michigan, which included stops in Essexville, Gladwin, Midland and Lansing.
