Specter Says GOP Hopefuls Fail to Parry Party’s ‘Fringe’ Sector

Asserting that he alone has the courage to stand his ground, Pennsylvania senator and GOP presidential candidate Arlen Specter chided his fellow aspirants Tuesday for failing to confront the looming presence of what he termed religious-oriented “fringe” elements in the Republican Party.

Since his announcement for President last month, Specter has sought to claim the moderate ground in a party whose successes have most recently come from the conservative flank. And he did so Tuesday with a provocative--by Republican standards--assault on the candidates and personalities who have empowered the conservative rise.

Meeting with Los Angeles Times reporters and editors, Specter cited several prominent Republicans by name, beginning with his fellow presidential aspirant Patrick J. Buchanan, who in his speech to the 1992 Republican national convention contended that religious conservatives were engaged in a “holy war” over the nation’s culture.

“That’s fringe talk,” said a dismissive Specter.

And while he took pains to say that he was not aiming at the influential Christian Coalition, he did fire away at the group’s two leaders.

“Pat Robertson, a man I’ve known since law school days, says there’s no constitutional doctrine of separation of church and state, says that it’s a lie of the left. That’s not my America. Ralph Reed (the coalition’s director) says if you’re pro-choice, you’re not fit to be the Republican nominee. That has to be challenged and that’s what I am doing.”

Specter said that he alone has tilted against the rightward flow of the Republican Party.

“I haven’t blown with the winds,” he said. “People who are announcing for President are moving farther to the right every day, every last one of them, and I’m not going to do that.”

Specter will mount a full-strength campaign in California despite the presence in the race of the state’s governor, Pete Wilson. Wilson and Specter are the only major candidates who favor abortion rights, and Wilson’s late, still-unofficial entrance into the race has been seen as damaging to Specter’s long-shot effort.