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Clueless in Seattle
The real legacy of the WTO protests is a rising tide of populism -- try telling that to politicians swapping platitudes on global trade.
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[12/09/99]

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The GOP presidential candidate says he'll sue if the state's byzantine laws keep him off the ballot.
By Andrea Bernstein
[12/09/99]

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When all is said and done about pandering to the Christian right, however, it should be noted that of the three top Republican candidates -- McCain, Forbes and Bush -- it is only the Texas governor who has publicly refused to meet with the Log Cabin Society, a group of gay Republicans.

And while the secular media remains skeptical, conservatives have embraced the new Steve Forbes. In his campaign four years ago, Forbes' one issue was the flat tax, and he certainly didn't seem too keen on the Republican Party's religious conservative base when he called Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson a "toothy flake."

Forbes and Robertson have since made nice, of course, and Forbes was the only candidate other than Bush whom Robertson talked up at this year's Christian Coalition convention. Certainly Gary Bauer feels threatened in the battle for the religious vote. In debates, Bauer comes at Forbes as if he were the front-runner, not Bush or McCain.

After his loss in '96, Forbes made the decision that he wanted to win. Thus, he hired a bunch of the same folks who helped Pat Buchanan with his '96 insurgent campaign. And thus, the re-prioritization of his opposition to abortion and gun control -- which have no doubt helped him among the red-meat types who don't trust Bush or McCain. Forbes has been endorsed by such right-wing luminaries as Reagan aide Lyn Nofziger, Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation and Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., -- who has called Forbes "the one true Reaganite seeking the White House."

Forbes spokesman Keith Appell says that his boss mechanically repeated his flat-tax mantra in '96 because "he could only break through the noise by getting behind one issue."

But a Forbes '96 staffer says that Forbes has always been anti-abortion. "I would never have worked for him in '96 if he hadn't been," the staffer says. "I don't think he's had a change in heart on the issues, I just think he's had a change in priorities. He was always pro-life, but now he's out saying he'd protect life first and foremost, even before the flat tax, and that is definitely a change in priorities. Sure, there's an element of pandering in that. But in '96 Steve underestimated conservative voters in Iowa and South Carolina and their commitment to pro-life issues."

His pandering does occasionally reach a cloying intensity. For someone who only recently came to Jesus, he sure came quick. On Dec. 9, Forbes ripped Bush for naming a highway after "Houston abortionist, John B. Coleman ... a longtime target of anti-abortion protestors because he had run an abortion clinic and performed abortions."

"Is George W. Bush committed to the pro-life movement, or not?" Forbes asked. "Is he committed to naming a pro-life running mate? Is he committed to naming pro-life judges? He has, after all, named a highway after an abortionist."

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