KINDER'S COMMENTARY: ABOUT PAT BUCHANAN'S LEAP OUT OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY: IT WAS TIME

Arizona Sen. John McCain distinguished himself this past week by becoming the first GOP presidential candidate to say of Patrick J. Buchanan, as he departs the Republican Party, that in truth he left it long ago. The truth is Pat no longer belongs in the party of Ronald Reagan.

First, a little history. Buchanan, the fiery pundit with the marvelous sense of humor, was an inspiration to this writer for most of a generation. Even before I knew his name, he helped mold thinking in our household by penning brilliantly written, unsigned editorials for the old St. Louis Globe-Democrat, of ever-honored memory. A 23-year-old Buchanan landed his first job at the old Globe in 1962.

Then there was the arrival in 1975 of the Buchanan newspaper column, when he became only the fourth conservative to be nationally syndicated, joining the great Bills -- Safire and Buckley -- and the newly minted George Will. Pat's brilliant writing and trenchant analysis, breathing the spirit of '76, energized untold legions of us who went marching off for Mr. Reagan, in that winter's snows, in the Gipper's dashing charge at Gerald Ford. Many Buchanan lines were such witty turns of phrase that they remain with me still. It was in the lobby of Kansas City's old Muehlbach Hotel in August 1976 that this writer, then a devoted college foot soldier for the Gipper at that month's Republican national convention, spied Buchanan and wife Shelly. Nervously I approached them to sing his praises.

By 1988, after duty as director of communications in the Reagan White House, Pat delivered himself of a biography, "Right From the Beginning." It was amusing -- even, at times, screamingly funny.

Sometime in the last decade, though, Pat took a decided turn toward the kooky. Where Ronald Reagan was always looking for ways to advance the cause of free trade, Pat is proudly, unabashedly protectionist. Reagan the proud internationalist was devoted to America's destiny in playing our unique role in the world. Sadly, Pat is isolationist in the tradition of the pre-World War II Charles Lindbergh.

Where Reagan was a uniter, Pat is a gleeful divider. Most important, where Reagan the misty-eyed Irish story teller was famously optimistic ("You ain't seen nothing yet!", "America's best days are still ahead"), the angry Pat is darkly pessimistic about immigration and our ability to compete in the global economy. Reagan sought ways to make us all winners. Pat's obsessed with the grievances of our losers.

Everything will hinge on the response to Buchanan by likely nominee GOP George W. Bush. His model: Harry Truman's 1948 campaign. In '48, HST had not one but two schisms. On Truman's left, he had an out-and-out Communist sympathizer in former Vice President Henry Wallace, who broke away and led his own party. On Truman's right, he had then-South Carolina Gov. Strom Thurmond and his breakaway Dixiecrat Party, bolting over Truman's courageous stand on civil rights.

In today's Buchanan, we confront a near-schizoid extremist of both the right and left inside one man.

A feisty Truman, nearly dumped by his own party leaders that summer, courageously took his centrist-liberal, anti-communist campaign to the voters. The voters rewarded HST with a huge victory, confounding all pollsters and giving him back both houses of Congress.

To Pat this one-time fan says, "I love you, brother, but ... good riddance. Go appeal to the 3 percent of American who are yours. We've got work to do, a White House to clean and ready for fumigation, a glorious cause to advance."

~Peter Kinder is assistant to the president of Rust Communications and a state senator from Cape Girardeau.