Making It Us Vs. Them

At first he kept an uncharacteristically low profile, quietly seething over / the press and congressional reaction to Iranscam. But eventually and probably inevitably, Patrick Buchanan, the White House's bombastic director of communications, could contain himself no longer. Having served Nixon during the dark days of Watergate, he feels he knows how best to handle the current scandal. "These crises have a certain rhythm," says the old pro. "First it's a news story, then a policy controversy, then an investigation -- and then it turns into a political war. When it goes political, you've got to go into it full tilt."