Robertson Blasts Republicans

As Republican presidential candidates showed off their conservative credentials Friday, Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson deemed Gary Bauer a "lost cause," Elizabeth Dole "a Southern belle" and George W. Bush, "worthy of support."

For Pat Buchanan, Robertson gave a stern warning that Christian conservatives will desert him if he ditches the GOP for a third-party presidential run with the Reform Party.

Reform supporters are "180 degrees out in terms of social issues. They don't share any of the views that Pat Buchanan claimed to espouse so vociferously," Robertson told a news conference at the coalition's annual "Road to Victory" conference.

"I can't see him taking many Christian conservatives with him -- not to the Reform Party," Robertson said.

The two-day conference drew 3,500 of the coalition's 2.1 million members and six of the eight Republicans running for president.

It was Bush, the Texas governor and front-runner for the GOP nomination, who filled all the seats in a cavernous hotel ballroom.

He advocated parental-notification laws on abortion, saying "Parents should be the first to help, not the last to know."

Robertson, the religious broadcaster who commands the grass-roots army of Christian activists that helped sweep Republicans into control of Congress in the 1994 elections, said he will not endorse any presidential candidate during the primary season.

But his preferences were clear.

In an interview, Robertson all but dismissed Bauer, whose teen-aged supporters in campaign T-shirts worked Friday's convention in droves.

"He's not going to win," Robertson told The New York Times. "You don't win with 1 or 2 percent. Most people are not terribly keen on riding a lost cause."

Bauer, who once ran the Family Research Council and prides himself on his Christian conservative appeal, appeared taken aback when informed of Robertson's remark.

Robertson said some of what he's heard from Bush's "centrist" campaign "so far would cause me to believe he would be worthy of support of the coalition."

Still, Robertson added he is eager to see a series of debates force Bush to "crystallize his positions."

In his speech, Bauer promised that, unlike Bush, he would make a judge's opposition to abortion rights a prerequisite for appointment to any federal bench.

Also, Bauer shouted, "My judges are going to understand that marriage is between a man and a woman, not two men."

Dole took the stage to the music from "Gone With the Wind" and talked of her religious upbringing. She called her grandmother's tattered Bible her dearest treasure.

"I learned from the best -- President Reagan -- that you have to lead with the convictions of your heart, not with the latest polling data," said Dole.

Robertson said later that she gave a wonderful speech" and enjoys "real support" from his members. Asked to explain the music organizers chose for her entrance, Robertson boyishly shrugged. "She's the Southern belle, right?"

Arizona Sen. John McCain declined an invitation to speak. And though Buchanan appeared on Saturday's program, he canceled earlier this week, his campaign said. Alan Keyes was addressing the Friday evening session. Steve Forbes issued an open invitation to picnic by the pool after his Saturday morning speech.

President Clinton was Robertson's primary target. "As we prepare for a new millennium, I want to start with cleansing the highest office of the land from the sleaze and the equivocation and the moral rot which has embarrassed us all," he said.