ASHINGTON - John McCain, the presidential candidate from Arizona, accused George W. Bush, a rival from Texas and the Republican Party's front-runner, of ''sacrificing our principles'' by refusing to condemn Patrick J. Buchanan's views on Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.
''Like Governor Bush, I want to see a united Republican Party,'' McCain said in a statement yesterday. ''But no political campaign is worth sacrificing our principles.''
In an interview Friday, Bush said he does not want Buchanan to leave the Republican Party and seek the Reform Party nomination for president.
Bush did not join other Republican and conservative leaders who have attacked Buchanan over his campaign book, ''A Republic, Not an Empire.'' The book questions the timing of the US entry into World War II because, Buchanan said, Germany was not a threat to the United States after 1940.
''America,'' McCain said, ''has always stood ready to fight tyranny and oppression. The Republican Party has always stood for freedom.
''I urge all of the Republican presidential candidates to let it be known that there is no place in our party for anyone who would reject these principles,'' McCain said. ''Our party must take a strong and forceful stand against the kind of language that threatens our commitment to freedom and democracy for all.''
Mindy Tucker, a Bush spokeswoman, said: ''Governor Bush has made it clear that he strongly disagrees with Pat Buchanan on this issue. He believes we were fighting on the side of freedom and justice.''
Asked whether the statement had been aimed primarily at Bush, a McCain spokesman, Dan Schnur, said that while the statement covered all the candidates, ''You'll note that in the third paragraph he mentioned Governor Bush by name.''
