Pat Buchanan has come out swinging against the left and George Bush. Despite the fierce rhetoric, those who know him best say he’s really a pussy cat.
Originally published in the McLean Providence Journal.
In 1992, Pat Buchanan leapt into the public eye with his attempt to steal the Republican Party nomination from president George Bush.
Buchanan belongs to select group of public figures whose mere names get an immediate emotional reaction, whether positive or negative.
Most Americans are familiar with him through his much-watched run for the presidency, or his tough-talking television debate show.
But those who know him describe Buchanan as a smart and funny man whose strong words are the product of intellectual rigor and passion rather than venom.
A resident of McLean for 17 years, he and his wife Shelley live in a large, white brick house on Saville Lane next to the Central Intelligence Agency.
His home is decorated with antiques and a pair of bronze busts: one of himself in the front hall and one of his former boss, Ronald Reagan — for whom Buchana served as Director of Communications during the “Great Communicator’s” second term in the White House — in the living room.
Amidst the elegance are two hints of a Buchanan less well known: a row of cheerful animal statuettes on the mantle and an affectionate tabby named Gipper, another tribute to Reagan.
Buchanan has a large physical presence with an easy manner about him. Just back from a lecture in Dallas, he was cool and unfazed by the prospect of an interview.
He describes himself as a “Washingtonian by birth and a Virginian by choice.”
While Buchanan considers McLean his home, he is not what anyone would call a community activist.
“With all due respect, I would be hard put to name the members of my county’s council or who the mayor is or if we even have a mayor,” he says.
A day in the life
Mondays are typically the busiest day of the week for him.
They begin early, while most people are still in bed, as he finishes his syndicated newspaper column begun the night before and sends it to Atlanta via modem.
After that, it’s a phone call to Mutual Radio to discuss his nationwide call-in talk show, followed by a jog around CIA headquarters.
Following his three-hour radio broadcast, on alternate Mondays, he’s off to the D.C studios of the Cable News Network for “Crossfire.”
Then, before turning in, he writes a rough draft of his next column.
In addition to his regular schedule, he makes roughly 25 speeches and panel appearances each year and he works with his McLean-based political organization, The American Cause.
“Pat Buchanan is the greatest American statesman today,” says Terry Jeffrey, the executive director of the American Cause and a Buchanan true believer. “I think he’s an inspiring figure, from a distance and close-up. What more can I say than that?”
In what free time he does have, he likes to go out to dinner with family or his friends on the staff of The Washington Times.
“What I find interesting,” says Pat’s sister, Angela “Bay” Buchanan, “Is that the perception of him is so different than the real Pat Buchanan. He’s one of the warmest and friendliest people imaginable.
“People go on his TV show expecting the worst, and they just end up laughing. He doesn’t mind disagreeing with people, and he enjoys people with strong opinions. … No matter what your philosophy is, he’s a great person to have dinner with. You may disagree with him, but you’ll laugh your head off while you do so, you know?”
Columnist Sam Francis, one of Pat’s friends from the Washington Times, also mentions Pat’s sense of humor.
“On his radio show, Pat laughs through most of it; he has a very comic sense. He comes out swinging and I think he expects others to come out swinging, too. That’s part of the game with Pat.”
Buchanan’s constant outpouring of opinion in print and across the airwves attracts some criticism from others in the public eye.
Francis says the media, excepting perhaps the Times, has “cast [Buchanan] as Tyrannosaurus Rex” for his opinions.
“Well, I think his public persona is really unfair,” Francis says. “He’s supposed to be harsh. I think the opposite is true: He’s very outgoing and friendly [and] he takes care of his friends.”
Playboy magazine recently called Buchanan a “mean-spirited meathead,” a label that doesn’t faze him.
“I don’t read Playboy. They asked me a number of years ago to do an interview and I said no.”
Quite simply, he doesn’t take their journalistic opinions seriously, he says.
“He has a great sensibility,” says Bay. “And he taught me this: to laugh when he’s under attack. He laughs about it.”
Part of the reason Buchanan attracts the criticism he does — which came fast, thick and often nasty during his days on the 1992 campaign trail — is that his politics, while conservative, are different from what many now associate with “mainstream” conservative politics.
Buchanan believes history will be on his side.
“Well, I think those you would call the ‘America First’ conservatives are very much on the ascendancy and I think their arguments and philosophy are going to be dominant in the Republican Party. You see the ‘Interventionists,’ if you will, in the debate on Bosnia, [they] argue for the use of American military power and going in and getting into the quagmire.”
“He really sees what the issues are long before they come,” says Bay. “Immigration is a perfect example. He was called a racist and a nativist and a xenophobe … because he said we have to do something about this problem.
“Seven or eight months after all the national papers and elected officials are calling us names, The Wall Street Journal comes out and calls immigration ‘the issue of the ’90s.’
“Pat accepts that.”
In the Crossfire
More than a decade ago, Buchanan went beyond the printed page to use the even more influential medium of television.
The Washington headquarters of the Cable News Network is only a few blocks from the Capitol Building, where decisions are made that affect the entire planet.
Those making the decisions are the guests — some might say victims — of CNN’s talk show “Crossfire.”
“Pat is a pleasure to work with,” says Rick Davis, the executive director of “Crossfire.” “ALL the staff enjoys working with him. He really is a journalist at heart.
“Anybody who’s here who wants to stop him and talk to him about the issues of the day, he will. That’s the thing I really respect about him.
“To see someone of his prominence, influence, stature, wealth, reputation treat people like that is a credit to him.”
SInce 1982, Buchanan has been the show’s conservative voice, debating with guests and, for four years, co-host Michael Kinsley of The New Republic.
“We do not socialize,” says Kinsley. “I’ve had dinner once with Pat.
“We get along together fine and we work together fine.”
Meanwhile, Davis has gotten word that there is to be a Senate vote 10 minutes before the show goes on the air live.
The guests, Sen. John Breaux (D-Louisiana) and Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), will try to be on time, but it will be close.
With one minute to air, the senators make it and the show goes off smoothly.
The debate begins politely, but soon collapses into the bickering viewers have come to expect, with the senators talking over one another and attacking each other wickedly.
Buchanan, waiting for a moment to jump in, smiles with amusement.
President Buchanan
Buchanan’s belief that the Republican Party had somehow gone astray is what ultimately led him to make his failed run for the presidency.
During the 1992 presidential race, he was criticized by some for not having a real connection to the people, particularly because he has never been elected to office.
If that criticism ever had any merit, according to Bay, it didn’t by the time he bowed out of the race.
“He had gone from being a brilliant student of the issues and a debater … he had now taken on a human dimension. Now, he had met people first-hand in the unemployment line, women in terrible economic straits. All of the sudden, he becamse their spokesperson.
“He was transformed by his experience as a candidate into a leader, a real leader of people, instead of the most articulate person for his cause.”
At this time, less than halfway through the term of a Democratic president with an uncertain political future, Buchanan isn’t ready to throw his hat into the ring any time soon.
“Oh, I haven’t made up my mind what I’m going to do in ’96.
“But I do think that the kinds of issues I raised in 1992 — an America First foreign policy, no new taxes, an end to big government conservatism, taking control of America’s borders — these are issues that have great currency in both parties now. People are coming around to those points of view. Those issues are going to be represented in the politics of 1996, I guarantee it.”
Unlike her brother, Bay has no doubts whether Pat should run for president in 1996, and is prepared to use force if needed to convince him.
“If he doesn’t run, he’s going to have this crazy woman on his doorstep, banging the door down.
“I believe we will see Pat Buchanan running in ’96.”
Bay was right: Her brother made his second bid for the presidency in 1996.
