WASHINGTON INSIGHT

PAT ATTACK: A group of conservatives that back President Bush is talking about forming an organization to try to stop Patrick J. Buchanan from claiming the legacy of President Ronald Reagan. . . . So far, the group includes Rep. Vin Weber (R-Minn.), former Education Secretary William J. Bennett and Bill Kristol, Vice President Dan Quayle’s chief of staff. They are trying to draft what they describe as a “neo-Reaganite manifesto” endorsing conservative support for measures to stimulate economic growth, equality for minorities, foreign aid and a continuing dominant global role for the United States. The manifesto would try to counter what the three see as efforts by Buchanan to take the conservative movement toward racism and isolationism and away from Reaganomics. Then they would try to establish an organization to serve as a foil to the group that Buchanan is expected to launch.