THE 'TROLL' IS OUT FROM UNDER THE BRIDGE
HELEN KENNEDY DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
07/30/2000
New York Daily News
(Copyright 2000 Daily News, L.P.)

WASHINGTON - Pat Buchanan has been uncharacteristically quiet lately, but the old troll, as he calls himself, is about to come roaring out from beneath the bridge where he's been lurking.
The conservative firebrand has been lying low for months, engrossed in his takeover of the fractious Reform Party. Republicans who worried last year that he would split George W. Bush's conservative vote have long since relaxed, lulled by his barely-a- blip poll numbers.
Political analysts say he is a marginal figure in this campaign, unlikely to have much effect on the result.
But like a horror film character who just won't die, Buchanan is plotting his resurrection, starting with bookings on next Sunday's political morning shows."Be ready, he's coming back strong," said an aide.
The most pressing question now is whether he can capture the Reform nomination - and $12 million in federal campaign funds - at the party's convention in 10 days, which promises to be a battle royale.
The party created by quirky Texas billionaire Ross Perot - dedicated to campaign and trade reform but agnostic on social questions - has collapsed into squabbling factions. But most united recently in a bid to repel Pitchfork Pat and his right-wing social conservatism.
"He's using brownshirt bully tactics," said party secretary Jim Mangia. "The Reform Party rank and file are so angry that he's essentially screwed himself over - he's not going to win the primary" against physicist John Hagelin.As for the general election, Buchanan's three chief campaign assets - the prospective $12 million, his oratorical skill and his Buchanan Brigade of devoted backers - have all been undercut.
Old guard Reform members say Buchanan is trying to steal the primary, and if
he somehow wins it, they plan to sue to block him from getting the federal
money."Without the money, he won't get even a single percentage point," predicted
GOP pollster Frank Luntz.
Buchanan's support has dwindled along with his credibility. After he published a book last year arguing that Hitler hadn't been a threat to America, earlier comments that could be construed as anti- Semitic came back to haunt him, and he's become widely caricatured as a Nazi sympathizer.Buchanan - unlike the mainstream candidates - can speak both grammatically and with verve, and he brags that he will wipe the floor with Bush and Vice President Gore at the fall debates. But he is likely to be silenced by entry rules barring candidates with less than 15% support.Buchanan is pulling between 2% and 6% from a fat and happy boom- time electorate that is less inclined to look to the fringes than when he did well in 1992 and 1996. And Bush's veep pick of abortion foe Dick Cheney eliminates Buchanan's chances of stealing away anti- abortion Republicans."He's simply irrelevant," said Luntz. "He's the Hindenburg - after the explosion."Caption: AP Pat Buchanan plots his resurrection in the campaign, starting with Sunday morning TV.