WASHINGTON -- The Reform Party's weekend of "wrestlemania" is turning to talk of nominating a Republican, Sen. John McCain, in the presidential race as leaders of Ross Perot's organization search for instant stability -- and credibility.

"He sounds more like a Reform Party candidate than anyone else running," Rhode Island chairman Victor Moffitt said of McCain. "He would be a perfect candidate for our party."

Campaigning in South Carolina, McCain said he would accept the Reform nomination, but only after he had won the GOP's nod.

"Sure I would, as long as they know I'm the nominee of the Republican Party," McCain said. "I wouldn't seek their nomination if I were not the Republican nominee."

He also said, however, that the Reform Party's nationally televised melee over the weekend in Nashville, Tenn., left unclear whether the party had one base or two.

"I reach out to everybody, although from watching 'Headline News,' I'm not sure who you'd be reaching out to," McCain said.

The party's newly installed leaders insisted the free-for-all meeting had been "cathartic," a rightful uprising against figureheads hostile to Perot's vision of reform. With Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, his hand-picked national party chairman Jack Gargan and potential presidential candidate Donald Trump suddenly out, the organization was returned overnight to stability, Perot's allies said.

"The party's under control," declared newly installed National Chairman Pat Choate. "The sideshow is over."

But Ventura said today the Nashville "fiasco" showed he was right to quit the Reform Party. The governor said he would focus on growing a strong Minnesota Independent Party and had no plans to run for president or build a national third party this year. Interviewed on NBC's "Today," Ventura said the Perot allies don't "want anyone winning an election who can overshadow the Perot movement down in Texas."

Others also said the nationally televised melee had dealt a major blow to the Reform Party.

"I think people are laughing at us," Alabama chairman Jim Turpin, who attended the meeting, said by telephone from his home near Birmingham. "I'm having second thoughts; I'm thinking about going with another party, an independent party."

But no other political organization outside the Republican and Democratic parties will have $12.6 million in federal matching funds to give a presidential candidate, nor such potential to influence the election this year, Reform leaders said.

News shows were still airing footage Monday of red-faced party members shouting each other in Nashville while police officers separated them. The pictures, some critics said, dealt major damage to the Reform Party's credibility in national politics.

"Those images are not particularly helpful to the prestige of the party or an institution," said Stephen Wayne, an expert on political parties who teaches at Georgetown University.

The leadership shakeup also prompted new speculation over what's next for the party.

Perot has yet to rule out running for a third time. And Pat Buchanan, a former Republican, has been campaigning for months in a cross-country marathon to qualify for the ballots in 29 states.

Buchanan said Monday that the dispute won't hurt his candidacy, but will help the party.

"I think the internal warfare inside the party is now over. Two weeks from now, a month from now, that's going to be ancient history," he said during a campaign stop in West Columbia, S.C.

Buchanan added that he was pleased that Ventura and Trump were out of the way, but said the possibility of a third White House run by Perot would not deter him.

"Clearly, he would be a formidable challenger for the nomination. There's no question about it," he said of Perot. "But we would go right ahead with our campaign."

When asked about a place in the socially moderate party for Buchanan, the staunchly conservative former Republican who opposes abortion, Choate said Buchanan would fit because he agrees with the rest of the party platform on such issues as trade and campaign finance reform.

"He has a personal belief on the issue of abortion. We understand where he is, he understands where we are and we accept his position," said Choate, who was Perot's running mate in 1996.

Meanwhile, Trump announced he would not seek the party's presidential nomination in part because "the Reform Party is a total mess."