GOP foes trade accusations on religious issues

Mr. McCain, speaking a day before contests in Virginia, Washington state and North Dakota, said that GOP rival George W. Bush has aligned himself with these "agents of intolerance" - chiefly with his Feb. 2 visit to Bob Jones University in South Carolina.

"We are the party of Abraham Lincoln, not Bob Jones," Mr. McCain said in Virginia Beach, Va., home of Mr. Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network and near the headquarters of the Christian Coalition.

Mr. Bush, campaigning in Bellevue, Wash., accused Mr. McCain of "playing to people's religious fears" to divide voters.

"He is a person who obviously wants to divide people into camps," Mr. Bush said. "The Republican Party needs to nominate somebody who is a uniter, somebody who can not only unite our party and lead us to victory but unite the country."

The exchanges marked the latest clash over politics and religion between the two leading GOP presidential contenders.

A day earlier, Mr. Bush had sent New York City's top Catholic Church official a letter expressing regret for his speech at Bob Jones University, whose leaders ban interracial dating and have espoused anti-Catholic sentiments.

Mr. Bush said in his letter that he "should have been more clear" in disassociating himself "from anti-Catholic sentiment and racial prejudice."

Mr. McCain, who faced fierce opposition from religious conservatives in South Carolina and Michigan, said that he found Mr. Bush's letter sincere but tardy.

"His words are fine," Mr. McCain said. "To me, they should have been said three weeks ago. I think what he did was wrong."

Reassurance

Monday, Mr. Bush repeated his political mea culpa but sought to reassure religious conservatives that he is not rejecting their support of his candidacy.

"There are a lot of people in our party who happen to be Christians and who are conservative people," Mr. Bush said. "They realize I'm the one person who can lead the country."

As for Mr. McCain's criticism of Mr. Robertson and Mr. Falwell, the governor said: "They're supporters of mine, but I've got all kinds of supporters."

Mr. McCain also tried to avoid offending religious conservatives, saying before his Virginia Beach speech that he was criticizing only "a small number of leaders."

Religious conservatives campaigned vigorously against Mr. McCain in South Carolina, which he lost by 11 percentage points, and in Michigan, where he won with the help of independents and Democrats.

In Michigan, some would-be voters heard a taped telephone message in which Mr. Robertson denounced Mr. McCain and referred to Warren Rudman, national co-chairman of the senator's campaign, as a "vicious bigot."

Meanwhile, the McCain camp was also placing calls, issuing a "Catholic voter alert" that criticized Mr. Bush for his Bob Jones University visit.

Explanation

Mr. McCain first denied knowledge of those calls but later acknowledged approving the script. He said he was originally asked whether he had approved phone calls branding Mr. Bush an "anti-Catholic bigot." His campaign's taped message in Michigan did not use that language.

Bush supporters, however, noted that the calls linked the governor to anti-Catholic statements made by Bob Jones University leaders.

Appearing Monday on ABC's Good Morning America, Bush strategist Karl Rove accused Mr. McCain of using the Bob Jones controversy to portray Mr. Bush as a bigot. Mr. Rove called the Arizona senator's tactics a "reprehensible attempt to bring religion into American politics in a very ugly way."

Roberta Combs, executive director of the Christian Coalition, said in a statement that Mr. McCain was making a "transparent effort to divide one American from another on the basis of religion." And House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Irving, a Bush backer, said the speech was not one "worthy of a Republican presidential candidate."

Mr. McCain, in a response late Monday to accusations that he's dividing the GOP, said: "They've already ripped the party apart by what they did in South Carolina and other campaigns. We're trying to bring the party back together."

Mr. McCain said that religious conservatives have attacked him because of his push to overhaul campaign finances. Their power, he said, would be reduced by such reforms.

"I have spoken against forces that have turned politics into a battle of bucks instead of a battle of ideas," Mr. McCain said. "And for that, my friends, I have been accused of disloyalty to my party."

Speaking at a high school gym, he called himself "a Reagan Republican who will defeat Al Gore," prompting cheering and stomping from his student audience. "Unfortunately, Governor Bush is a Pat Robertson Republican who will lose to Al Gore."

Mr. McCain reaffirmed his words again in a Monday night speech at Pacific Lutheran University near Tacoma, Wash.

"I said some fairly harsh things this morning," he declared. "I said them because they're true."

Reagan comparison

Mr. Bush took issue with the senator for comparing himself to Ronald Reagan, both on the stump and in a new television commercial.

"He invokes the name of Ronald Reagan and yet at the same time plays upon people's religious fears. That's not the politics of Ronald Reagan I remember," Mr. Bush said.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., who is campaigning for Mr. Bush, also was critical of Mr. McCain's remarks.

"I have to tell my old friend to pull back on his throttle and quit trying to fire heat-seeking missiles up everybody's tailpipe," he said in Richmond, Va.

Mr. McCain and his aides said they still plan to appeal to rank-and-file religious conservatives who may object to their leaders' tactics. The senator was joined on the podium Monday by Gary Bauer, who during his failed presidential bid tried to appeal to religious conservatives.

"If this were an attack on Christian conservative voters, I wouldn't be here," said Mr. Bauer, founder of the Family Research Council.

In his speech, Mr. McCain said "evangelical leaders are changing America for the better," singling out Charles Colson and James Dobson.

His fight, he said, is with leaders who oppose him "because I don't pander to them, because I don't ascribe to their failed philosophy that money is our message."

Mr. Bush focused on education Monday during stops at two Washington community colleges, saying he supports local control, home schooling and taxpayer-funded vouchers to help poor children attend private school.

During his rally in Pasco, Wash., one supporter held up a handmade sign that said, "Catholics for Bush." Another sign read, "I'm a Catholic and I'm for George W. Bush."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.