Gop Needed Wakeup Call Letter Of The Week: From March 4

Now that Pat Buchanan has thrown his cigar into the Republican punch bowl, the howls of anguish from the GOP establishment, faced for the first time with real issues, is refreshing.

Sen. Bob Dole’s early expectation of winning the nomination on “trust me” bromides is as substanceless as Thomas E. Dewey’s flaccid 1940 campaign. Steve Forbes’ stooping low enough to urge upon the unwashed a screwball flat tax apparently has fizzled. And Lamar Alexander, tricked out in a working man’s plaid shirt, offers “new ideas” safely within the parameters of the status quo.

Comes now Buchanan, challenging the virtually unrestricted immigration that the GOP ignores because it keeps wages low and labor off balance.

For similar reasons NAFTA, a patently dumb idea, pleases Wall Street and a rather narrow range of exporting industries. It was begun by available George Bush, then Clinton pressed a reluctant majority of Democrats in Congress to support it. Clinton’s enthusiasm for the idea followed a $750,000 campaign contribution from interested businesses two days before the 1992 New Hampshire primary. I like a man who pays his debts.

Buchanan will not be nominated by his party, nor could I vote for him. But he has shaken up Republican complacency and brought to bear real issues that ought to be addressed and likely now cannot be avoided. The venomous and slanderous attacks on Buchanan are no substitute for rational dialogue - something the GOP appears anxious to avoid. L.F. Storm Athol, Idaho

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