Buchanan Nominated

• Contrary to what the Establishment press wants you to believe, the Reform Party's rump convention was a highly organized attempt on the part of the "wrecking crew" to undermine the nomination of Pat Buchanan as the party's presidential candidate.

Patrick J. Buchanan, now officially the Reform Party's presidential nominee, is carrying his America-first message throughout the country, greeted at all stops by cheering patriots.

His campaign expects every American in every state to be able to cast a Buchanan vote in November that could turn the country around.

"We will reclaim every ounce of American sovereignty," Buchanan said in his acceptance speech Aug. 12.

"We will lead this country out of the WTO, out of the IMF and I will personally tell Kofi Annan: 'Your UN lease has run out; you will be moving out of the United States and if you are not gone by year's end, I will send you 10,000 Marines to help you pack your bags.' "

Buchanan also promised to bring all U.S. military forces home and redeploy them along the border with Mexico.

"We will start putting America first," Buchanan said to rousing cheers.

Buchanan won an overwhelming victory among delegates at the Reform Party National Convention in Long Beach, Calif., on Aug. 11.

The delegates elected Buchanan in a near unanimous vote during the national convention that the Los Angeles Times called "the battle for the soul of the Reform Party" and described as "the real thing" and "democracy in action."

The delegates had voted earlier to discard the mail-in primary, before even knowing the results, and to nominate the party's presidential candidate on the second day of the convention.

State chairmen followed one after the other and announced their state delegation's total support for Buchanan with only a few delegates abstaining and a handful of votes for Charles Collins of Florida.

The results of the mail-in primary balloting revealed a 2 to 1 victory for Bu chanan over John Hagelin, a former professor at the Maharishi University in Fairfield, Iowa. A long-time Reform Party National Committee member described Hagelin as the "giggling guru" and "a self-proclaimed doctor at a self-created school."

Buchanan dismissed Hagelin saying, "John Hagelin is a log that has been thrown on the railroad tracks of a runaway train, and he will not even slow us down."

The victorious Buchanan told cheering delegates as confetti filled the hall, "We march out of Long Beach and we take America back!"

Buchanan chose Ezola Foster, a black woman, as his vice presidential running mate because she agrees with him on all the major issues. Foster, an educator and anti-immigration activist, served as Buchanan's campaign co-chair in 1996 and 2000.

"She is a lifelong Christian. She believes in the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount," he said. "She has spoken of the terrible mistake it was to take God out of the public schools. This campaign is committed to bringing God back to the public schools."

"Our campaign is the French Foreign Legion of American politics," Buchanan told the delegates. "We don't care what party you came from, where you've been or who you are running away from. If you want to join us and look out for America first, American sovereignty, traditional values, faith and family and country, come with us. You are welcome in our party."

A small group of supporters of Hagelin, founder of the Natural Law Party, walked out of the convention and held a rump convention in a nearby hotel. However, Hagelin's membership in the Natural Law party made it illegal, by state law, for Reform Party delegates in 43 states to even consider him as a candidate.

Reform Party Chairman Gerry Moan referred to the small group of "anyone-but-Buchanan" delegates who walked out of the convention as "the wrecking crew."

Jim Mangia, secretary of the Reform Party, led the walkout during a meeting of the National Committee, which had convened at the Westin Hotel in Long Beach on Aug. 8.

Mangia had contested the credentials of nearly every National Committee member, whom he had invited to the convention as party secretary, and declared, "this is a non-meeting." When the chairman, Gerry Moan, took control of the meeting, Mangia called his supporters to walk out.

The walkout appeared to have been orchestrated by Russell Verney, former Reform Party leader, who tried to force his way into the assembly with four or five very large men behind him at the same time that Mangia and his group were breaking out.

National Committee members reported that Mangia's ally, Dror Bar-Sadeh, orchestrated the walkout along with others who wore earpieces and seemed to be listening carefully to instructions coming from Verney, who was outside the room.

Dror Bar-Sadeh served as state chairman for North Carolina and as webmaster for Reform Party USA. As webmaster for the national party he was often accused of censoring communication between party members.

Last winter, when Bar-Sadeh was asked whether he was a dual national citizen, he admitted to having close ties to Israel, and that his children were born there. Some Reform Party members suspect him of working for the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, to sabotage the Buchanan campaign from within the Reform Party.

Buchanan has long been vilified by the Anti-Defamation League and other groups for his criticism of "the Israeli lobby" and America's one-sided policies in the Middle East.

Mangia was ousted as the party's secretary by the national convention for numerous reasons, which included his having openly supported Hagelin, which is a violation of his impartiality oath to the Reform Party.

When the motion was made to recall Mangia, Chairman Moan broke down in tears and excused himself from the podium. "We worked together for eight years building this thing," Moan said later. "It's hard."

The Federal Election Commission is expected to quickly dismiss what is viewed as a frivolous attempt by the dissidents to claim that Hagelin is the Reform Party nominee.

Buchanan campaign headquarters is "99.9 percent confident of winning the battle for the money." The Buchanan Brigade is also confident that federal courts will back the FEC and the $12.6 million in federal campaign funds should be available, they say, within a couple of weeks.