To the Editor:
Will you folks please make up your minds as to whether I am
turning the Reform Party into a haven for Bolsheviks or a tree
house for Nazis? Your Tom Edsall has us confused.
On March 15 he wrote that I "helped catapult...to a potential
position of influence in the coming national election....a Marxist-
Leninist group" headed by Lenora Fulani and one Fred
Newman.
On July 23 Mr. Edsall spied danger from a new direction: Now,
my campaign has "turned the Reform Party into a magnet
attracting leaders and activists of such extreme right
organizations as the National Alliance, the Liberty Lobby, the
Council of Conservative Citizens and the League of the South."
For the record: I have never been a member of any of these
organizations; nor have I ever spoken to any. Nor, to my
knowledge, does any leader of my campaign belong to any,
though my good friend Sam Francis, the columnist, writes for
the CCC, and Sens. Jesse Helms and Trent Lott have
reportedly spoken to it, fine folks all three.
As for the American Friends of the British National Party, and
"Stormfront" I never even heard of them before this squall
arose. But, six weeks ago, when a Reform leader sent me
racist filth put on two web sites by men claiming to be
Reformers, I wrote our Party Chair to urge him to dump them
and disassociate us.
If Mr. Edsall wishes to see the letter we will happily show it to
him. But Mr. Edsall prefers to sit back and recycle garbage fed
him by the ADL and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which
have a record of smearing conservatives and Christians. While
Edsall has written repeatedly and negatively on my campaign,
he has yet to cover it. Not once in eight months have I seen
him at any of the scores of rallies and conventions where he
might have met the kind of decent people who are trying to
build this party.
They are no more racists, haters, or anti-Semites than I, or
Hillary Clinton.
As for the individuals named in the article, there is only one I
recognize well: Fr. Dennis Pavichevich of Holy Resurrection
Serbian Orthodox Church where I spoke to Serb-Americans
about what Mr. Clinton did to their ancestral home in a war that
shamed us as a people.
If, as Edsall reports, Fr. Dennis actually flies a Battle Flag in
his front yard as a "Christian symbol...against tyranny," he is
doing what brave patriots did in Eastern Europe, when facing
Communist tyrants at the end of the Cold War. Speaking as a
longtime member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (yes,
Tom, I am a secret card-carrying member), God bless Father
Dennis.
As for my "hard-right views" on abortion, they are shared by
other well-known extremists, such as John Paul II, Ronald
Reagan and the late Mother Teresa.
Finally, when I told Ms. Fulani I would not support her for
Reform party chair, she bolted and joined my opponent's
campaign, which I assume is now in for a hit piece by Mr.
Edsall. Or is that just not part of the game plan? By the way,
exactly what was it that Joe McCarthy did, to which you folks
objected so much?
Patrick J. Buchanan
Reform Party Candidate
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Buchanan's Bid Transforms the Reform Party
By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 23, 2000; Page A04
Patrick J. Buchanan's presidential bid has turned the once-
centrist Reform Party into a magnet attracting leaders and
activists of such extreme right organizations as the National
Alliance, the Liberty Lobby, the Council of Conservative
Citizens and the League of the South.
Many of these white nationalist groups are promoting
Buchanan's candidacy in their publications and on their Web
sites, and one controversial group set up an independent
committee to back his bid for the presidency. Some leaders of
these organizations have held Buchanan fundraisers, collected
petitions for Buchanan and spoken at state Reform Party
meetings....
Buchanan insists that he is neither racist nor antisemitic.
Angela "Bay" Buchanan, his senior campaign adviser and
sister, declined to be interviewed for this article but issued this
statement: "My brother Pat does not now and has never
belonged to any organization or group that preaches or
practices intolerance or hatred. . . . And if any member of any
such group has gravitated to our campaign, it was without our
knowledge, or consent. But if they have, they probably did so
because they came to believe the malicious lies about my
brother spread by such institutions as The Washington Post.
You do your worst; we shall do our best."
Operating far outside the mainstream of political debate and
discussion, the activities of hard right organizations in the
Reform Party and in behalf of Buchanan include...
