AT A RALLY two days before the New Hampshire primary Pat Buchanan took the podium in a hotel ballroom flanked by siblings, nieces, and nephews—blood relatives there to enjoy his “conservatism of the heart.” The crowd chanted “We want Pat! No more GATT!” as their candidate lit into the media and the Washington establishment. “When George Will started yapping at me like a little poodle,” Buchanan told gleeful supporters, “I had to take the newspaper and roll it up and hit him with it.” NAFTA, the World Trade Organization, the United Nations all took their licks. But one target escaped with only a few glancing blows: President Clinton. The political establishment the Buchanan Brigades are most concerned with toppling is the GOP.
George Will got off easy. Buchanan actually promised to skewer the “knights and barons” of the Republican party with “pitchforks” wielded by the “peasants” he’s leading in revolt. The night of his victory, Buchanan emphasized a win for “a brand-new bold conservatism,” that would take on “transnational corporations that have no loyalty to our country,” before making the obligatory pledge to take back the White House. “We know what they’re going todotous,” Buchanan warned the crowd. “The establishment is coming together. The fax machines and the phones are buzzing in Washington right now.” In the days leading up to the primary Buchanan supporters were edgy, nervous that their candidate’s rightful place as leader of the party would somehow be stolen away. Even in victory the feeling was still there: Pat v. the GOP.
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