July 30, 1996

Buchanan Rejects Offer for Small Role at Convention

By JAMES BENNET

ASHINGTON -- Pat Buchanan's presidential campaign Monday angrily rejected an offer by Republican officials to feature him fleetingly at the party's convention next month.

Buchanan has said he deserved a prime-time speaking role at the convention, so his rejection did not surprise even some of those who made the offer.

Officials in the Republican Party and the Dole campaign have had competing concerns: While some in the campaign worried that the losing but lingering Republican candidate would reprise his cultural "war" speech of the 1992 convention, party leaders wanted to avoid the appearance of muzzling a prominent Republican.

So on Saturday, Haley Barbour, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, offered a watery compromise in a telephone conversation with Buchanan: a brief appearance in a videotaped presentation, an offer similar to that presented to other losing Republican candidates.

A Republican official familiar with the offer said Buchanan would have made a 15-second appearance in a 7-to-8-minute presentation on values.

In rejecting the offer, Angela Bay Buchanan, Buchanan's sister and campaign chairman, said: "We consider the decision to deny Pat a speaking role at the GOP convention, and offer him instead a pretaped 'sound-bite' inside a short video, an affront to the millions who believe in Pat and the three million who voted for him."

Republican officials said that they had anticipated that response -- and even welcomed it. "Kind of a messy day, but at least we can go on record saying we tried," said the Republican official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Buchanan campaign continued to try to rewrite the Republicans' painstaking script for the convention. That model is intended as a made-for-television, strife-free platform for the presumed nominee, Bob Dole.

Buchanan is expected to fight efforts to soften the party's platform language on abortion, which calls for a constitutional amendment banning the procedure, as well as to seek new language critical of international trade deals, an issue that animated his campaign.

The offer to Buchanan of a videotaped appearance came after a debate among top Republicans over whether he should have any role at all.

Republican officials familiar with the debate said that Barbour was concerned that the convention was excluding a major candidate. Barbour, who continued to express the hope Monday that Buchanan would accept the offer, seldom misses an opportunity to point out to reporters that the Democrats denied a speech at their 1992 convention to Robert P. Casey, the former governor of Pennsylvania, and an abortion opponent.

But Republican officials said that Paul J. Manafort, who is managing the convention for Dole, wanted to freeze Buchanan out. It is possible, as Dole tries to appeal to centrist voters, that an outraged Buchanan raising a ruckus outside the convention hall could make Dole appear more moderate.

Buchanan is planning a rally in Escondido, Calif., on Aug. 11, the night before the convention begins in San Diego. In addition, on Aug. 10, he is scheduled to address a "Salute to Principle" breakfast organized by the American Life League, an anti-abortion group, in Anaheim, Calif.

The Dole campaign said it expected Buchanan eventually to be on its side. "It's unfortunate that Pat decided not to take up the offer to be included in the convention program," said Nelson Warfield, a Dole spokesman. "But we remain confident he'll be part of the fight to defeat Bill Clinton after San Diego."

Barbour was asked at a news conference Monday about previous statements by Manafort that Buchanan would not speak at the convention. "The ultimate decisions of what happens at the convention are my decisions," he said.

He said he thought Buchanan should be treated like "the other losing candidates," who have been invited to tape "long sound bites that fit into an issues segment."

It was not clear if the other candidates had accepted the offer. "My sense is that they have," said Mary Crawford, a party spokeswoman.

Also Monday, Barbour released a partial list of people who will deliver brief speeches or appear in videotapes at the convention. Mary Fisher, who is infected with the AIDS virus, and who is the daughter of the Republican fund-raiser Max Fisher, is scheduled to appear on the first night, as are Gen. Colin Powell and Nancy Reagan, the former first lady. Dole's wife, Elizabeth, and daughter, Robin, are to speak on the third night.