Bob Dole may have little chance of winning in November if Ross Perot launches another third-party presidential run, says Pat Buchanan, who was Dole's chief rival for the Republican nomination.
In the long run, Buchanan said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation," the emergence of Perot's Reform Party "threatens the viability of the Republican Party."Buchanan said the Reform Party would attract many of the "conservative populists" who backed him in the primaries, and in future elections the GOP would have no choice but to form coalitions with the new group to have any hope of defeating the Democrats.
"The Perot candidacy, as opposed to Governor (Richard) Lamm, is a mortal threat to the Republican Party in 1996 because Ross Perot can win the Buchanan voters," the conservative commentator said.
Lamm, the former Democratic governor of Colorado, announced earlier this month that he would seek the Reform Party nomination and push its platform of fiscal austerity, campaign finance reform and America-first economics.
Perot, the Texas billionaire who garnered 19 percent of the popular vote in the 1992 election, said last week he was willing to challenge Lamm for the nomination.
Buchanan, who came in second to Dole in the primaries, has declined to formally endorse the Dole candidacy and stressed that "we're not going to that (Republican) convention as supplicants."
"We have access to voters who can give the Republican Party victory. Our people are going to be treated with respect," Buchanan said.
It has not been announced whether Buchanan will be allowed to give a prime-time speech during the convention next month in San Diego. Buchanan's fiery speech at the GOP convention in Houston four years ago set a right-wing tone to President Bush's campaign that many analysts said contributed to his defeat.
Buchanan would not say whether he might give a speech outside the convention if the Dole people snub him. But he said "how they treat the ideas and issues that I have committed myself to represent is going to have a large bearing on whether our people come home" and support Dole.
Buchanan, a strong opponent of abortion, also said he would fight to change compromise language in the GOP platform that commits the party to a constitutional amendment to ban abortions but pledges tolerance for those with different views.
Buchanan predicted convention battles over abortion, trade policy, foreign policy and affirmative action during an appearance today in ABC's "Good Morning America."
"I think we're going to win a lot of these fights because the party agrees with us," Buchanan said. "I think there's a tremendous case to be made that you've got to bring the Buchanan folks home or you're not going to get the Perot voters and you're not going to win the election."
Lamm, speaking earlier on CBS, said he was undeterred by Perot's announced run for the party spot, and said the Reform Party that Perot built might still look elsewhere for its presidential candidate.
Perot "is no longer the fresh and new face," Lamm said, noting that Moses, after leading his people out of Egypt, never reached the Promised Land.