Buchanan Storms Reform Gates

Calling himself a "fresh, new" alternative for voters, Reform Party presidential candidate Pat Buchanan charged Monday that George W. Bush hasn't shown the "depth or capacity" to be president and Al Gore is marred by improper fund-raising in 1996.

The conservative commentator hopes to pick up supporters from John McCain's dormant GOP campaign, but is not backing away from his strong anti-abortion stance or his call for a "cultural war." Such positions are at odds with most of the Reform Party's members and also unlikely to appeal to the independents, moderate Republicans and Democrats who supported the Arizona senator.

Former Reform chairman Russell Verney, a top aide to party founder Ross Perot, said "The majority would be best described as secular. They don't want the government to take a position on those issues."

But Buchanan said he could appeal to McCain voters who want an anti-establishment candidate. Interviewed on NBC's Today" show, Buchanan predicted the race would look this way: "Bush: same old, same old. Gore: same old, same old. Reform Party: fresh, new."

Buchanan just might have a shot if he can fill this niche, said Craig Crawford, editor in chief of the The Hotline. "That is the scariest thing going on right now for both the Democratic and Republican parties," Crawford told the CBS Early Show on Monday. "There really is a core 20 perecent who will vote for just about anybody as long as they are not part of the establishment. So Buchanan has got to get into that game."

Buchanan's stance on domestic issues has been branded extremist even by some former colleagues in the Republican Party. Buchanan defended his anti-abortion views as being the same as Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa and Ronald Reagan, "and they're not extremists."

Verney said Buchanan's positions wouldn't disqualify him from winning the Reform Party's presidential nomination, as long as he agrees with the platform's opposition to free-trade agreements.

"Every candidate has positions outside the party's platform," Verney said.

About Bush, the presumptive Republican nominee, Buchanan said: "He hasn't demonstrated the depth or capacity or wisdom or knowledge yet, I think, to be the president of the United States."

He said Gore, the presumed Democratic nominee, suffers from "a real element of cynicism ... the idea that he's going to run on campaign finance reform after he was involved in that shakedown in the White House."

Buchanan started the race as one of a dozen Republican hopefuls and has survived by leaving the GOP for the Reform Party and forging an alliance with political opposites in the party.

At campaign events, Buchanan does not volunteer his anti-abortion views or the fact that an individual's position on the issue would be a prime factor in choosing a running mate.

Aked Sunday about potential nominees to the Supreme Court, he said, "I would only appoint justices who I knew or deeply believed would overturn Roe vs. Wade," the high court's 1973 decision that legalized abortion.

"There is a cultural war going on for the soul of America," he said.

On whom, if anyone, he would refuse to meet with, Buchanan said quietly, "I would not meet with the (Ku Klux) Klan."

Buchanan said Monday he doesn't expect Perot to challenge him for the nomination, which carries huge rewards. It would give him a pulpit from which to focus on the positions he shares with the party - opposition to free trade agreements and normal trade status for China - while minimizing his more divisive positions.

Winning the nomination would also bring $12.6 million in federal subsidies for his campaign.

In exchange, the Reform Party tops its ticket with a candidate who will draw media coverage and who powerfully articulates its central underpinning, trade policy.

Buchanan predicted Sunday that his candidacy would attract the support of 15 percent of voters and qualify him to participate in the fall presidential debates. Such poll numbers would defy surveys that show that domestic issues, not foreign affairs, drive the nation's elections.

Buchanan plans to fly around the country this week to fund-raisers and to give a speech Thursday at Harvard University.