Rivals question Bush's support

The Associated Press

OVERLAND PARK -- Two of Texas Gov. George W. Bush's rivals for the Republican presidential nomination cast doubt Saturday on the breadth of his support despite his success at raising money and picking up endorsements.

Pat Buchanan and Alan Keyes, both hard-line conservatives, spoke at news conferences before a Republican rally at Johnson County Community College. The session was sponsored by the Kansas Republican Assembly, a conservative group within the state Republican Party. Buchanan, a former White House aide, columnist and television commentator, is making his third bid for the presidency. In 1992, he challenged the Texas governor's father, President George Bush. Buchanan said the younger Bush's early success is due to his name and to polls that show him beating the Democratic front-runner, Vice President Al Gore. Buchanan said he sees the Republican race coming down to a contest between him and George W. Bush and he expects to win it. He said his strategy is essentially the same as in his earlier campaigns. "To run strong in the early primaries and caucuses, to emerge as the strongest conservative candidate, and then to challenge the establishment candidate in the middle primaries," he said. "Last time, we almost made it. We didn't quite do it. This time we believe we can do it, we believe we will do it." "Simply because the Republican establishment and the Beltway media have designated George W. Bush the candidate of the Republican Party does not mean he is that candidate," he said. Buchanan said he would have been the GOP nominee in 1996 if he had had three more points in Iowa. He said former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, who won the nomination, was about as strong in 1995 as George W. Bush is now. In 1991, he said, President Bush had a 91 percent approval rating in the polls, "and we almost beat him six months later in New Hampshire." Buchanan said he wants to engage George W. Bush in a series of national debates on such issues as foreign policy, trade, U.S. sovereignty and abortion. "I believe he's a globalist, as his father is, and a new world order man," Buchanan said. Keyes said he finished well ahead of George W. Bush in a couple of recent Republican straw polls in Iowa counties even though the Texas governor had begun organizing efforts in that state. "I think this emperor has no clothes," Keyes said of the Texas governor. "And I don't care who follows him around. He does not have grass-roots support, and he doesn't have it because he doesn't speak with principle. He doesn't stand with conviction for the things America needs to address." Keyes said his own message is that America is going through the greatest moral crisis in the nation's history. "We've got to address that crisis and the issues involved in it, starting with issues like abortion, as a matter of top priority," he said. Keyes took issue with a view George W. Bush is a shoo-in for the nomination because of the amount of money he has raised. "If we accept that, that means that money votes decide the election," he said. "And if money votes decide the election, that means that people with the money votes decide who's going to run America. "I thought this whole business of a representative government was about making sure that kind of thing didn't happen, that we're not supposed to be some plutocracy, some oligarchy where a few monied individuals will decide the fate of our country. I thought we were supposed to decide that based on the votes of the people." Buchanan said he expects Gore to get the Democratic nomination. He said former Sen. Bill Bradley has done well in raising funds and drawing attention to his campaign for the nomination, but he said he hasn't seen in it the strong charismatic personality or strong views necessary to motivate voters. Keyes said Gore is "politically stumbling about." He said he wasn't ready to count Bradley out, calling him "a man capable of surprising people." Jim Jordan, of the Kansas Republican Assembly, estimated that at least 900 people attended the rally.

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