Bauer Claims Reagan Mantle

Conservative leader Gary Bauer is basing his quest for the presidential nomination on his claim that he is the only Reagan Republican in the field, he told CBS News Face the Nation Anchor Bob Schieffer. And he expects to win.

Bauer was dismissive of front-runner George W. Bush's recent remarks attacking on the Republican right wing. "It looks to me like he is trying to get the nomination of the Democratic party, devoting his energy to attacking good Republican conservatives," Bauer said.

Bush's distancing tactic could backfire, Bauer warned, leading to the election of a Democratic congress. "If you've got a front-runner in your party that is using the language of American liberalism to critique the Congress, that's got to be bad news for the election," he said.

If Bush has problems with the Republican leadership in Congress, Bauer said, he ought to have talked to them directly, before going public with them. "The phones are ringing constantly between Capitol Hill and Austin," Bauer said. "He's the front-runner of the party. If he's got a problem with something going on in the Congress, pick up the phone and say something about it. But don't provide fodder for the Democrats to use in 2000 to defeat our party."

Despite Bush's awesome financial lead over the rest of the field, Bauer feels good about his own chances. When asked if he would support Bush as the Republican nominee, Bauer answered "I don't think I'm going to have to worry about it, becauseÂ… my campaign is picking up momentum. We're third in fund-raising. We're second in the number of donors."

When pressed further on the question, he expressed the hope that Bush will support him, then turned his attack on Steve Forbes, another Republican hopeful with a large war chest. "I want to go after Mr. Forbes on his tax plan," Bauer said. "Talk about special interest. He would let big corporations pay zero while the average guy, between income tax and social security tax, would pay 25%."

Bauer is untroubled by Pat Robertson's failure to endorse him, even though they have the same core constituency. "Pat Robertson hasn't supported me from day one. He and I have a big disagreement on China."

On the whole, Bauer believes his candidacy is not dependent on the support of other leaders, but on simply getting his message out. "I think my campaign is a grass roots campaign, almost a populist campaign. That's where we'll get our traction," he said.

Bauer believes the nomination of Governor Bush would send a disheartening message to the electorate. "The message would be money is all that counts and we want to follow a Clinton-type strategy of trying to fool the American peopleÂ… I think we ought to be bold, unapologetic, with a Reagan message," Bauer said. "When we do that, we win landslides. When we try to be everything to everybody, like we did in the last two presidential elections, we get our heds handed to us."