Pat Buchanan said Wednesday it "appears inevitable" that Sen. Bob Dole would be the Republican presidential nominee, but he intensified his criticism of the front-runner anyway. Steve Forbes, Dole's other nemesis, was set to roll out an endorsement from a big GOP gun while two also-rans prepared to drop out.
Two Republican sources said that former Housing Secretary Jack Kemp, proponent of the supply-side economic theory that Forbes champions, was poised to give Forbes, a personal friend, an endorsement on the eve of New York's primary on Thursday. The sources said Kemp was going to New York state to campaign at Forbes' side.Forbes had been seeking Kemp's backing - he's said he got in the race only when Kemp decided to stay out - but Kemp was torn between backing a long-shot or coming out for Dole, the more likely nominee. Twice he was on the verge of making an announcement, and both times he pulled back.
Meantime, former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander and Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar accepted the inevitable and prepared to quit the race, as party leaders have urged.
Dole flew to Texas Wednesday to pick up the endorsement of Gov. George W. Bush - and the blessings of his father, former President George Bush - two more rivals for the GOP nomination.
House Speaker Newt Gingrich said the nominating race is over but declined to urge Buchanan to fold his candidacy.
"Dole is nominated," the Speaker said in a brief interview outside his Capitol office. "If Buchanan wants to stay in a non-race, that's his prerogative."
Asked if Dole should consider retired Gen. Colin Powell as his running mate, Gingrich said, "I don't want to prejudge."
In Miami, Buchanan told a rally at a Cuban restaurant that he might not be the strongest candidate but he remained the strongest advocate for working people and conservative Christians. "As inadequate as I am, I am the voice for these folks."
Buchanan promised in an interview to carry his conservative message across the country, and he continued his sharp attacks on Dole.
"Bob Dole has no ideas," he said, charging that Dole won "ugly" and calling Dole's campaign "hollow, an empty vessel."
"We think we can fill that vessel up with our ideas if he is the nominee," Buchanan said, referring to the party platform.
In New York, which votes Thursday, a tracking poll conducted Sunday through Tuesday for the New York Post and Fox 5 television said Dole was gaining strength. The poll said Dole was the choice of 48 percent of 566 likely Republican voters, up almost 6 percentage points from Tuesday. Forbes was at 19 percent, while Buchanan trailed at 15 percent. The poll had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
In Texas, which votes Tuesday, a poll of likely primary voters put Dole in the lead with 45 percent to Buchanan's 20 percent.
Dole's clean sweep of all eight "Junior Tuesday" states severely wounded Buchanan and Forbes, and many party figures said that Dole had a lock on the GOP nomination.
"It's over," Republican pollster Bob Teeter said, surveying Dole's sweep. Buchanan accepted as much, with a caveat: "I still think there's a very, very long shot that Senator Dole could stumble badly."
He wavered on whether he would support a GOP ticket headed by Dole and said many of his supporters probably would not.
"They certainly would not, as of this moment, given the character of the campaign Senator Dole has conducted with the attacks and the extremist nonsense, all the rest of it," he said.
As for whether he might bolt to a third party, Buchanan hedged.
"I'm not saying I'm ruling anything like that in . . .," he said. "I'm not saying what I'm going to do at all. I'm going to the Republican convention. I've always supported the nominee."
Buchanan recalled recent history: Ross Perot's independent bid in 1992 that won 19 percent of the national vote, and, many observers think, assured President Clinton's election.
"There's a huge broad mass of middle America that's unrepresented. My view is these people are not going to go unrepresented forever," he said.
Perot this year is forming a third party but hasn't said who its nominee might be. He and Buchanan see eye-to-eye on trade issues.
With the prize seemingly within grasp at last - Dole has sought it for 16 years - he kept his emotions in close check at a Washington rally. Still, he beamed.
"Thank you, Colorado, thank you, Connecticut," the Kansan said as he ran through the roll call of states that had come through for him.
"Thank you Georgia, thank you Maine," he said, finishing the list - Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont.
Republican caucuses were conducted, as well, in Minnesota and Washington state. Results trickled in slowly, but a straw vote in Minnesota looked good for Dole.
Dole did his best to make his nomination seem forgone, locked up. "We've found a leader to bring the Republican Party together," he said, directing his fire at President Clinton.
Clinton faced only minor opposition in the four states that held Democratic primaries.
All told, Dole added 199 delegates Tuesday to the 91 that he had won earlier, giving him 290 of the 996 needed to win the nomination.
Forbes is a distant second, with 72 delegates. Buchanan has 62.
On Thursday, New York state votes, with 93 delegates at stake, and next Tuesday - "Super Tuesday" - offers a lode: 362 delegates.
Dole predicted he would pick up 90 percent of the delegates in New York.
Forbes said he hoped to do well in New York but acknowledged he only had a few days. "I don't know whether that's going to be time enough to do it."
Buchanan's persistence worried pollster Teeter, who remembered how Buchanan harassed President Bush in the primaries four years ago. "If he hangs in there and pounds at Dole, it's a problem," Teeter said.
Still, he insisted that Dole is unstoppable: "It's over, it has been over, this just kind of confirms it."
Gov. Jim Edgar of Illinois, a Dole supporter, also drew that conclusion. "If he doesn't have it wrapped up, he's close," he said.
Alexander, once considered formidable, chose Nashville to announce his withdrawal. He had portrayed himself as an outsider with government experience and championed sending federal power to the states, and welfare to charities.
Lugar, respected for his foreign policy authority but a colorless campaigner, never caught on. His best day was his last - in Vermont, where he broke into double digits for the first time, 14 percent, but still finished fourth.
Forbes, meanwhile, has coveted Kemp's endorsements for months.
Forbes spokeswoman Gretchen Morgenson declined to discuss the nature of Wednesday's announcement but dismissed speculation Forbes would join Lugar and Alexander in quitting the race.
"It is major, but remember he has said in the past he's in it for the long haul," Morgenson said.