he smoke from the Democratic and Republican nomination battles is clearing. The presumptive nominees, Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush, are loading their cannons and training them on each other.
Not so fast, says Pat Buchanan, the erstwhile GOP stalwart who jumped to the Reform Party last fall and is seeking the party's presidential nomination.
Speaking to students at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government yesterday, Buchanan made it clear that he intends to turn the two-man race for the presidency into a three-way fight. He attacked both nominees, and both parties, in a speech titled ''A Plague on Both Your Houses.''
Neither candidate is committed to cleaning up the current system of campaign financing, Buchanan said, a system that was ''pretty much the only real issue'' in this year's presidential race.
''Friends, neither Beltway party is going to drain this swamp, because to them it is not a swamp at all, but a protected wetland, and their natural habitat'' he said, to laughter. ''They swim in it, feed in it, spawn in it.''
But few students were interested in talking about Buchanan's ideas for campaign finance reform. Instead, questioner after questioner took issue with his socially conservative stances.
Buchanan was pressed about some of his past statements, including that Adolf Hitler was ''courageous'' and that women are not as able as men to succeed in the fast-paced world of finance - and his contention that Harvard seems to discriminate against Catholics and fundamentalists.
Buchanan returned the acrimony, at one point admonishing the college for using what he called double standards.
''Simply because you're at Harvard does not exempt you from the same kinds of rules and regulations Harvard lovingly imposes upon the rest of America,'' he said. ''And maybe you ought to examine your own consciences, instead of constantly telling the rest of America what they ought to do. Pat Buchanan may not be a beloved figure in America, but neither is Harvard.''
Buchanan, a former aide to presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, has twice before run for president. Last fall, lost in a crowded Republican field, he switched to the Reform Party, which, led by Ross Perot in 1992, garnered 19 percent of the vote in the general election.
Since then, Perot's appeal has diminished and the party has fallen into disarray, exacerbated by the departure of Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura.
The party is not yet on the ballot in 29 states, and Buchanan is trying to gather petitions to change that. But he has shown the ability to beat tough odds in the past: In 1996, he won the Republican contest in New Hampshire.
According to Buchanan, Senator John McCain owed this year's great success in the Granite State partly to Buchanan's supporters.
''McCain got 40 percent of the Buchanan vote in New Hampshire, based on the fact that he was standing up and defying the Washington establishment,'' said Buchanan. ''A lot of Americans looked up to and supported McCain because he represented a challenge to the two-party system in Washington. He was something different.''
Buchanan is hoping that revulsion at what he called the ''Republicrat collusion'' will win him voters.
He proposed an end to campaign contributions by unions and corporations, and full disclosure of contributions within 48 hours of receipt. He proposed that half of all contributions to members of the House and Senate should come from their home states or districts. He called for term limits and increased contribution limits, to be set at $3,000 instead of $1,000 and indexed to inflation.
Buchanan would not, however, put an end to advertising by special-interest groups like the National Right to Life Association or the Sierra Club, as long as their affiliations are disclosed. Such advocacy advertisements are free speech, he said.
Buchanan did allow that leaving the Republican Party had been a difficult decision for him.
''I prayed over it,'' he said. ''And I know that there is a possibility that my campaign might damage and set back the causes I've fought for my whole life.''
But, Buchanan said, he had obligations to his supporters. ''The reason I ran against [Bush] is this,'' he said. ''I came to the conclusion that Al Gore is going to beat him, and we are going to go down in defeat a third time. And people who believe in me as a leader, and who believe in all the causes I believe in, [were] going to go unrepresented in the general election.''
