Dole Abortion Stance Backed by Buchanan

Sen. Bob Dole’s call for a “declaration of tolerance” in the Republican platform aimed at those favoring abortion rights won the grudging support Friday of Patrick J. Buchanan, the hard-line abortion foe and Dole rival for the party’s presidential nomination.

Buchanan’s backing suggests that Dole may well have finessed, at least for now, an issue that has created schisms within GOP ranks. Dole’s abortion statement also was praised by some--though not all--of the prominent Republicans who support abortion rights.

But even as strategists for the presumed nominee expressed relief at the absence of an intraparty firestorm, President Clinton entered the fray Friday, praising Dole for seeking to “lower the rhetoric” but pointing out “the stark difference in our policies” on abortion rights.

Dole, in a statement issued by his campaign Thursday that was clearly intended to defuse a potentially nasty convention fight this summer, reaffirmed his support of a plank calling for a constitutional amendment banning abortions while calling for language in the platform that recognizes differing views among Republicans on such issues as abortion.

“This is not compromise. It is civility,” Dole said in his statement.

“We are in a very good position,” a senior Dole campaign tactician said Friday. “The response we have gotten, both from pro-life Dole supporters and pro-choice Republicans, has been largely very positive.”

Dole offered nothing new on the subject Friday. Asked about it as he campaigned in Nashville, Tenn., he replied in his typical clipped fashion:

“Get it out of the convention. We’ve got a lot of things we agree with. We’re going to win this election. . . . We don’t want the convention dominated by the media talking about one issue.”

Still, the issue is hardly behind Dole, who will resign his Senate seat Tuesday to begin a full-time quest for the White House. The drafting of the precise language lies ahead. And several conservative leaders, even while endorsing Dole’s intentions on the platform, warned of an all-out fight at the party’s San Diego nominating convention in August if he chooses a running mate who backs abortion rights.

Moreover, Dole’s strong antiabortion stand may do little to help him attract more women voters, who, polls show, overwhelmingly support Clinton. Several abortion-rights organizations on Friday blasted Dole anew.

“Bob Dole’s statement yesterday confirms that he is willing to make abortion illegal for most American women. No verbal window dressing will change this fact,” said Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League.

Dole’s call for a “declaration of tolerance” in the GOP platform would restore sentiments expressed in 1980, when the party first nominated Ronald Reagan. The platform’s current language does not recognize divergent views on abortion.

Dole opposes federal funding for abortion and backs a constitutional amendment banning abortion that makes exceptions in cases of rape or incest or when the life of the mother is at stake.

Buchanan said Dole’s reaffirmation of support for a constitutional amendment to ban abortions was “welcome news for the cause of life.” He said he would not object to language that welcomes Republicans who disagree so long as it was not “targeted at or designed to dilute” the party’s long-standing antiabortion stance.

Other antiabortion advocates, including Christian Coalition Executive Director Ralph Reed, also said they do not object to Dole’s goal--as long as abortion is not singled out as the sole issue on which Republicans differ.

“We long have said we would accept a general statement in the preamble to our platform, or in the platform plank unconnected to, and unrelated to, right to life,” Buchanan said.

Another prominent social conservative, Gary Bauer, head of the Family Research Council, said:

“Language that indicates what we all know to be true, that there are divergent viewpoints on a wide range of issues in every party, would be accepted by unanimous consent within the pro-family community if it is applied to the entire platform.”

Dole’s approach also continued to draw support from at least some of the big-state Republican governors who support abortion rights and recently pledged to fight the existing platform plank.

New York Gov. George Pataki said Dole “has taken a significant step to unify our party. . . . On the issue of abortion, I am pro-choice. Bob Dole has a different position, but with [his] statement, he has demonstrated that he respects and understands that people with differing opinions belong in the Republican Party.”

New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, who had quickly embraced Dole’s statement on Thursday, continued to praise it Friday. She hailed his effort as “a major step toward our mutual goal of broadening the base of the Republican Party.”

Nelson Warfield, Dole’s campaign spokesman, said: “Sen. Dole’s leadership on the platform is already paying off for the party. When you see voices as diverse as Patrick Buchanan and Christy Todd Whitman praising the approach, then clearly we’re doing something right.”

But other prominent GOP governors who advocate moderating the platform were less supportive.

Massachusetts Gov. William F. Weld said he found Dole’s words “encouraging,” but reiterated his intention to “continue to fight for broader ‘big tent’ language, which treats the pro-choice and pro-life positions equally in the platform--or for removal of the abortion plank altogether.”

On Thursday, California Gov. Pete Wilson made clear he did not believe Dole had moved far enough. A statement read by his aides said: “We respect Bob Dole and enthusiastically support his candidacy. But we feel strongly that the Republican Party can and should offer a more realistic and relevant response to questions about reproductive choice and privacy.”

Clinton made his comments on this issue during a Rose Garden news conference on the economy.

“I think it is a good thing . . . for anyone to urge that we lower the rhetoric and stop lobbing these verbal bombs at one another,” Clinton said.

“But when you lower the rhetoric, the difference, the stark difference in our policies, remains there,” the president said. “He is in favor of a constitutional amendment to ban abortion, and I am not. And so, there is a real difference there that I don’t think can be papered over. But I think anything that restores civility to this debate is a positive thing, and I applaud him for saying that.”

A senior Dole campaign official offered this assessment: “What this shows is that, as leader of the party, Dole wants to ensure that on this issue we can agree to disagree and that he can unify the party on behalf on a large goal, which is to defeat Bill Clinton.”

In another campaign development, Dole aides announced that former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and former Minnesota Rep. Vin Weber will serve as his co-policy directors.

The appointments were another sign of Dole’s efforts to bind his party together, given that the two men are strongly identified with different GOP factions.

Rumsfeld, 64, a former Illinois congressman, directed defense under President Ford, for whom he also served as White House chief of staff. A moderate, he has been in private business since 1985, alternately heading a pharmaceutical company and high-technology communications firm.

Weber, 43, was earlier named to serve as Dole’s liaison to the committee writing the convention platform. In six terms in the House, he built a reputation as a solid, antiabortion conservative and adherent to supply-side economic theory.

Weber, also an ally of House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), retired from Congress in 1992.

Rumsfeld and Weber will coordinate the work of three newly formed teams making recommendations on domestic policy, economic and trade issues, and foreign affairs and national security. In a statement, Dole called the teams “a source of ideas and strategic counsel.”

Both Weber and Rumsfeld serve as directors of Empower America, a grass-roots political organization founded by Weber and fellow conservatives Jack Kemp, William J. Bennett and Jeane J. Kirkpatrick.

Times staff writers Jon Peterson in Nashville, Tenn., and Maria L. La Ganga in Los Angeles contributed to this story.