GOP Needs to Stick to Issues, Reed and Specter Agree

Aired February 22, 1996 4:11 pm

JUDY WOODRUFF, Anchor: Joining us now to discuss Pat Buchanan's candidacy and its implications for the Republican Party. From Virginia Beach, Virginia, Ralph Reed, executive director of the Christian Coalition. And here in Washington, former GOP presidential candidate Senator Arlen Specter, who is now a backer of Bob Dole.

Gentlemen, thank you for being with us. I want to get right to the point that we heard Pat Buchanan make. Is he being ganged-up on and attacked by the elders in the Republican Party? Senator Specter?

Sen. ARLEN SPECTER (R-PA): I don't think so. Quite a few people are expressing their views. I think Pat's right when he says there oughtn't to be name-calling. I don't think we need to say that Pat Buchanan is divisive. All we need to do is to take him on on the issues. That's what I did when I was a candidate. We disagree with him on his call for a fortress America. We believe in free trade. We believe in a more tolerant, broad-based Republican Party. And I think those are the issues, and that's the fair way to go about it.

WOODRUFF: Ralph Reed, Bob Dole is saying today that not only is Pat Buchanan an extremist, not only is he intolerant, he is going so far as to say if Pat Buchanan wins the nomination Republicans are going to lose the Congress- could lose the White House and would lose the Congress.

RALPH REED, Christian Coalition: Well, you know, Judy, my own view is, and I have shared this with the Dole campaign, I've said it publicly, that I think what everybody needs to do right now is take three deep breaths, don't panic, recognize that there's going to be about 35 other primaries over roughly the next 45 days or so. And just recognize that calling people names like `extremist,' `intolerant,' and other kinds of buzz words and other charges that have been leveled, for example, against religious conservatives over the years by liberals, really sends the wrong message to the electorate. You know, after they leave Arizona, they have to come to South Carolina. After that they go to Georgia, and then they hit Super Tuesday. In those states, Judy, you're looking at between 58 and 62 percent of all likely Republican primary voters will be self-identified, born-again, evangelicals. And they don't like themselves or the candidates that they support - whoever that candidate is - to be attacked using those kinds of names. I agree with Senator Specter that they ought to stick to the issues. If there are issue differences, hash them out.

WOODRUFF: Well, Senator Specter, is Bob Dole wrong to be calling Pat Buchanan an extremist in saying that his nomination would divide the party and lose the Congress?

SPECTER: I think you have to give a little latitude to a candidate who's on the stump and who's out there fighting. But when Senator Dole says that it would be tough on House races and Senate races and county courthouses and state legislatures, I think that's correct. You take a candidacy like George McGovern's back in 1972, it did not help the party on the lower echelons. And I think that's a substantive argument and a fair comment.

WOODRUFF: Well, Ralph Reed, I mean, where are we here? I mean, should Bob Dole be making these comments or not?

REED: Well, I think, Judy, that's the kind of decision that really has to be made by Senator Dole and his campaign staff. I can only again repeat what I have conveyed both to them and to our supporters, and that is that we believe that this campaign ought to be conducted on issues. You know, they said Ronald Reagan couldn't win. They said he's take the Republican Party down. I remember eight years ago, at this very moment, Pat Robertson had come out of Iowa with a head of steam, and people were suggesting that he would hurt the party, and, of course, he's turned out to be a major asset to the party.

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WOODRUFF: Well, Lamar Alexander is making very similar comments about Pat Buchanan, talking about `Buchananism' and we have to stop it in the party.

REED: My advice to those candidates, every one of them, not just Governor Alexander and Senator Dole, but all of Pat Buchanan's opponents is quit attacking him and calling him names, and focus on your vision for the future of America. How are you going to create jobs? How are you going to rebuild the greatness of America? How are you going to restore the Judeo-Christian values that made our nation great? How are you going to balance the budget and lower taxes and strengthen the family? That's what people want to hear.

WOODRUFF: But Senator Lugar- I mean, I'm sorry, Senator Specter, we know that in these situations that sort of language goes on. In your view should Lamar Alexander get out of the race? Should Steve Forbes get out of the race? What about Senator Lugar?

SPECTER: I don't think anybody should get out of the race. Each one of those men has a right to be there. What I think we need is more political activism by people who oppose Pat Buchanan on the merits. I tried very hard in my candidacy to get people off the sidelines, centrists off the sidelines and on to the playing field. And I think Pat Buchanan may be able to accomplish what Arlen Specter couldn't. I agree with Ralph Reed. Let's talk about the issues. Let's talk about free trade.

WOODRUFF: You mean because he's managed to get- he's energizing the so-called centrists-?

SPECTER: Why, he sure is. We had a heavy vote in New Hampshire, but in Iowa, of the 600,000 people eligible to vote, fewer than 100,000 people voted.

WOODRUFF: But Ralph Reed is saying the argument that's being made to get those people off the sidelines is an argument that's going to hurt the party by the name-calling, the labeling of Pat Buchanan as extremist.

SPECTER: Well, I don't believe in the name-calling. I don't believe that that is constructive. But that happens in a political campaign, and no matter what you say about negative ads, very few of us have avoided using them. I think that we'll be able to pull together, but the more we stick on the issue- But activating the party is very helpful. I thought it was interesting to see Bob Dole really alive and up, really with some brim and firestone. And I think a good-

WOODRUFF: So, it's not OK, but it's OK. It's understandable.

SPECTER: Well, it's understandable-

WOODRUFF: Let me come back to you- I'm sorry. Let me just quickly come back to Ralph Reed. Most of the voters who identify themselves as part of the religious right, as you know, have voted for Pat Buchanan in Iowa and New Hampshire. Will the Christian Coalition, your people, will they unite behind his candidacy?

REED: Well, you know, Judy, what we have found, in fact, in both Iowa and New Hampshire, was that Pat Buchanan was pulling between 30 and 35 percent of the religious conservative vote, and Bob Dole was getting between 22 and 28 percent of the religious conservative vote. It depends on how you ask the question. But we think that there is no single religious conservative candidate. Pat Buchanan is getting a plurality. Bob Dole is holding his own. Lamar Alexander is getting about one out of every 10. But the short answer to your question is, I don't think that we're going to attempt to engineer or dominate this race the way, say, the labor unions did in the mid-80s in the Democratic Party. We're going to let 1,000 flowers bloom, let the process play itself out, and may the best man win.

WOODRUFF: All right. Ralph Reed, Senator Arlen Specter, thank you both for joining us.

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