ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 3, 1996 TAG: 9603010094
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BRUCE HERSCHENSOHN
IT IS NOT my habit to start articles by stating my religion or declaring a personal friendship, but under today's conditions, it is vital. I'm Jewish and Pat Buchanan is my friend.
Our friendship goes back 25 years. In the past few years, we have had a number of foreign-policy differences. Last year, discussing those differences on a radio program, I called him an ``isolationist'' and he called me a ``one-worlder.'' And then we started laughing, a heartfelt expression that our differences were policy-driven alone.
I am convinced that he thinks that his positions on foreign policy are in the best interests of the United States. I disagree. We are, in fact, both arguing for our own definitions of conservatism in foreign affairs. I, therefore, have no problem with anyone being critical of him on those issues. But I am infuriated, enraged and incensed at the attacks that have labeled him an anti-Semite and a racist.
I remember when Pat passionately wanted to risk a superpower confrontation to prevent the possible destruction of Israel as the Yom Kippur War started in 1973. He forcefully condemned the American Civil Liberties Union for its 1978 support of Nazis marching in Skokie, Ill. Although there were ``inside'' political risks, he opposed the Reagan administration's condemnation of Israel in 1981 when Israel bombed Iraq's nuclear reactor. I can say without hesitancy that from what I know about Pat, which is a great deal, the charges I have heard against him have absolutely no credibility, but they are very dangerous.
In the attempt to destroy his candidacy for the presidency, such slander not only puts Pat Buchanan on the defensive (which is the objective); it also puts millions of his supporters on the defensive, and in their passion for him, some of them may transfer their anger against his critics to anger against the groups that Pat is accused of hating.
Moreover, these charges are putting the United States, as a nation, on the defensive. Last week, after the New Hampshire primary, a foreign correspondent asked me, ``How can an anti-Semite and a racist get so far in presidential politics in these times?''
I answered that someone so described cannot get very far in U.S. presidential politics. Immediately he told me that he was talking about Pat Buchanan. Immediately I told him he was severely misinformed. But foreign correspondents can send untruths just as easily as facts beyond our water's edge:
Israel's biggest newspaper, Yediot Aharonot, editorialized, ``Will a man who hates Jews and blacks represent the Republican Party in the race for the White House?'' Spain's El Pais newspaper wrote that Buchanan's declarations are always tinged with ``racism and anti-Semitism.'' Frankfurt's Allgemeine Zeitung alleged that ``the American presidential campaign now has its own Zhirinovsky.''
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, reading the charges against Buchanan, complimented him. Buchanan immediately rejected Zhirinovsky's praise.
Some say that Pat brings the charges on himself by ``shooting from the hip'' (just as was said about Barry Goldwater in 1964). But Pat tends to talk rather than read from text that has been inspected by 15 consultants to ensure that it cannot be misinterpreted. Pat fights close to the edge. It's his style and I like it. At the same time, there have been those occasions when I have thought, ``Whoa, don't say that! Do you know what they'll say you meant by that one?'' Too late.
His penchant, his talent, his ability for plain talk and catchy phrases is a virtue that can be perceived as a vice in a political campaign where microscopes are used to examine words that were meant for a wider context.
I wish that people who are otherwise responsible would make certain they know what they're talking about before making serious personal charges against those who seek public office.
Sorry, Pat, but the attacks against you by some of your opponents and by many jealous journalists are much more harmful to the nation than your fears of nontariff free-trade agreements and all the allied partnerships and U.S. foreign interventions that you abhor, combined. But you should put my comments in perspective: This lifelong conservative may be a one-worlder in disguise. I won't laugh if you won't.
Bruce Herschensohn is a former Los Angeles TV commentator and Republican senatorial candidate who is now a fellow at Harvard University.
- Los Angeles Times
LENGTH: Medium: 83 linesby CNB