Buchanan says he'll win fight for Reform Party nomination

From staff and wire reports

WASHINGTON -- The only political party convention with a battle over a nominee this year may be the one held by the Reform Party from Thursday through Saturday this week in Long Beach, California.

Pat Buchanan, the conservative newspaper columnist who made three unsuccessful bids for the Republican presidential nomination before switching to the Reform Party last year, said on Sunday he was still seeking a running mate. But Buchanan added that he is confident he will win a rules battle and claim the presidential nomination of the party founded by Texas millionaire Ross Perot.

Buchanan's positions on some issues, especially his anti-abortion rights stance, has led some Reform members to challenge his right to seek the nomination because the party traditionally is silent on social issues.

On CBS's "Face the Nation," Buchanan said he was the party's only hope. "If I don't get this nomination, it is pretty much the end of the Reform Party," he said.

The Buchanan bid has caused infighting over the nomination, with some state delegations favoring physicist John Hagelin, who has support from national chairman Russell Verney and party secretary Jim Mangia.

Some states, including Florida on Saturday, have held two conventions, one electing Buchanan delegates, the other backing a Hagelin slate.

Buchanan said the infighting needed to end before the national convention begins, and he called on Perot to resolve the conflict:

"Ross should tell Mr. Verney, 'Look, if you've lost the nomination, just get out and stop the lawsuit nonsense ... If Pat Buchanan and his folks have won this nomination, let him go out there and do battle with Mr. Gore and Mr. Bush.'"

The first showdown comes on Tuesday at a national committee meeting that will decide who will chair a key panel that resolves disputes over delegates.

A Buchanan supporter is favored to win the nod. The panel will decide who gets 40 seats from 26 states being fought over by the factions.

"The only thing they have got is about eight or 10 people in positions of power and influence who are former Perot folks who simply want to derail our nomination," Buchanan told "Fox News Sunday."

"They simply want to destroy the party; we're there to build it," Buchanan said. "We are offering the American people ... an energetic, enthusiastic, fighting campaign this fall. And Mr. Verney, what is he doing? He's just mixing the Kool-Aid."

But the convention battle could be just the beginning of Buchanan's woes. He lags badly in the polls, routinely registering only 1 percent or 2 percent of the vote, and he said on CNN's "Late Edition" on Sunday that he has had difficulty in finding a running mate.

"No Democrat or Republican wants to risk a rising career if he figures he ... you know, that this is going to go down the chute," he said. "So you got to go outside that, and frankly, that's the way any new party is going to be built."

Buchanan said the recent Republican convention showed the need for his candidacy. "This Republican Party has been Clintonized," he said.

"It is not my party on foreign policy, trade policy, immigration policy. And the reason I left the GOP is to build a new party, and that's what we're doing."

He said he would appoint anti-abortion rights constitutionalists and conservatives to the Supreme Court. And he criticized Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush for refusing to make abortion a litmus test for potential Supreme Court nominees.

"Unless you are willing to change that Supreme Court and make it a pro-life constitutionalist court, your position is fraudulent and it is hollow and it is shallow," Buchanan said.